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AMERICAN PATRIOTISM 
IN PROSE AND VERSE 



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AMERICAN PATRIOTISM 

IN 

PROSE AND VERSE 

1775-1918 



SELECTED AND EDITED 

BY 

J. MADISON GATHANY, A.M. 

HISTORY DEPARTMENT, HOPE STREET HIGH SCHOOL 
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PREFACE 

The specific object of this volume is to help to American- 
ize the youth of this country, whether of native or of 
foreign birth. One of the best uses of our schools is to 
bring about an unshakable mental and' moral attachment 
of the American people to the aspirations and ideals of 
America. The child is the future adult citizen. Educa- 
tion is the living spring of his character. The ideals of 
nation are to be developed in the child, because only 
' is do they become of any real value to him, and through 
a to the nation. One main purpose of our schools is to 
i the seeds of national inspiration and aspiration. If 
nocracy is to endure, democratic ideals must be woven 
into the very texture of the thoughts, the feelings, and the 
life of the individual : for " character is destiny." 

The universal study and teaching of American ideals 
could in no wise produce the character-type that the study 
and teaching of Race ideals produce in certain foreign 
countries. For the ideals themselves are as far apart as 
the poles. American ideals teach no special race preroga- 
tives, disclose no national militarism, insist not at all upon 
blind slavish obedience to the State as mere Power. An 
understanding and practice of American ideals will lead 
to directly opposite results. The teaching of narrow race 
beliefs uncivihzes and dehumanizes the individual, and 
makes of the nation an aggregation of human beings 
without respect for the laws of civilized mankind. In other 
words, the teaching of such ideals defeats the true object 
of education and of the individual. 

vii 



Vlll PREFACE 

The object of this volume is really set forth in these 
comments upon the study and teaching of the objects 
and ideals of the nations referred to. Ideals to be studied 
must be put into definite concrete form. Herewith is 
presented a volume which contains a large number of 
important State papers, documents, speeches, addresses, 
epigrammatic statements, songs, hymns, and verses 
known to be of abiding value, derived from those who 
not only have studied about our democratic ideals, but 
have valiantly preached and practiced them. 

It is possible that we have proceeded too long on the 
basis that American patriotism will take care of itself 
because American democracy is divine, and therefore 
imperishable. This is not an entirely safe conception. 
We should have made a studied attempt to teach Ameri- 
can patriotism and American ideals. Patriotism can be 
taught; democratic ideals can be developed. The sig- 
nificance of American history and American institutions 
can be emphasized in our schools and in our homes. It 
cannot be overemphasized. 

Even our history classes, our classes in English, our 
classes in declamation, may be made also classes in American 
patriotism, centers of inspiration for American ideals. 
Out of such instruction may come a devoted citizenship, an 
intelligent basis of belief in democracy, and an aid to the 
forwarding of the ideals of democracy itself. For such 
work in classes it is hoped that this volume has been 
conveniently arranged — in chronological order — a plan 
particularly helpful to classes in history. 

The editor hopes that the adult citizens of America — 
both native-born and foreign-born — may find in this 
handy little volume a veritable political handbook. He 
even hopes that they may often pick it up and familiarize 
themselves with the purposes and ideals of this the most 
successful great democracy in the world. Parents he hopes 
may read now and then to the younger members of the 



PREFACE IX 

family from its pages, particularly those pages of verse 
that set forth our ideals so inspiringly to the young mind. 

Public speakers, preachers, members of the Congress 
of the United States, Senators and Representatives in the 
various state legislatures, city councilmen, and writers, 
all ought to find this little volume a veritable help and 
inspiration to them in their work. 

The reader will find brief biographical notes about each 
author whose material appears in the volume, and these 
notes usually relate the circumstances under which the 
pieces were composed. The index of authors at the end 
of the book will prove serviceable. 

Permission to reprint copyright matter has been granted 
with the greatest of courtesy. 

Grateful acknowledgment is here made to all writers 
and publishers who have so generously cooperated in the 
compiling of this work ; in particular, to Walter Lippmann 
and to Henry Holt and Company, his publishers, for 
permission to quote a selection from his volume, Preface 
to Politics, and to Thomas Buchanan Read and the J. B. 
Lippincott Company, his publishers, for permission to 
quote his poem, "The Revolutionary Rising." The selec- 
tions by Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, Emerson, Whittier, 
and Howe are used by permission of and by special arrange- 
ment with the Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized 
publishers of their works. Special mention is made of the 
fact that the editor has, with the very kind permission of 
Professor Willis Mason West and his publishers, Allyn 
and Bacon, made liberal use of the facts of American his- 
tory as set forth and interpreted by Professor West in 
his "American History and Government." The editor 
also wishes to express his great indebtedness to the pub- 
lishers of "Who's Who In America," and of "Lamb's 
Biographical Dictionary of the United States," publi- 
cations which he freely consulted in securing biographical 
data. A life-long friend, a careful student, and a partic- 



X PREFACE 

ularly successful teacher of English, Mr. Harold C. 
Newton, of the English Department of the Hope Street 
High School, Providence, Rhode Island, had the kind- 
ness to review the "notes" contained in this volume. His 
assistance is gratefully acknowledged. 

J. Madison Gathany. 
Seekonk, Massachusetts, 
July 1, 1918. 



CONTENTS 



America for Me .... 

Americanism, True . . . 

America 

Americanism 

America's Consecration 
Hymn 

America and Her Allies 

American Flag, The . . 

American, The Typical . 

Battle Cry of Freedom, 
The 

Battle Hymn of the Re- 
public, The .... 

Battle-Field, The . . . 

Blue and the Gray, The 

Boston Hymn 

Bunker Hill Monument . 

Bunker Hill, The Sword 
of 

Challenge, The .... 

Challenge, The .... 

Citizenship, Good . . . 

Civilization, Five Amer- 
ican Contributions to 

Columbia, the Gem of the 
Ocean 

Concord Hymn .... 

Constitution, The Nature 
of the Federal. . . 

Creed, An American , . 



Henry van Dyke . . 
Henry van Dyke . . 
Samuel Francis Smith 
Theodore Roosevelt . 



Percy MacKaye . . , 
Washington Gladden . 
Joseph Rodman Drake 
Nicholas Murray Butler 



George F. Root 



Julia Ward Howe . . 
William Cullen Bryant 
Francis Miles Finch 
Ralph Waldo Emerson 
Daniel Webster . . . 



William Ross Wallace 
Woodrow Wilson 
Dysart McMullen . 
Grover Cleveland 

Charles W. Eliot . 



David T. Shaw . . , 
Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Alexander Hamilton . 
Charles W. Eliot . , 
xi 



Xll 



CONTENTS 



Creed, An American . . The Outlook . . . 

Creed, The American's . William Tyler Page 

Crisis, The Present . . James Russell Lowell 

Deliverers, The .... The Outlook . 

Democracy James Russell Lowell 

Democracy Henry van Dyke . . 

Democracy, The Working 

of the American . . Charles W. Eliot 

Education in a Republic Henry van Dyke . . 

Farewell Address . . . George Washington . 

Flag Goes By, The . . . Henry Holcomb Bennett 

Flag, The Meaning of the Woodrow Wilson 

Flag of the Free, The . Henry van Dyke . . 

Flag Means, What the . Charles Evans Hughes 

Force to the Utmost . . Woodrow Wilson 

Freedom, Stanzas on . . James Russell Lowell 
Freedom and Duty, The 

Will to Henry van Dyke . . 

"Gassing" the W t orld's 

Mind William T. Ellis . 

Germany, Why We Are 

Fighting Franklin K. Lane . 

Gettysburg Address . . Abraham Lincoln . 

Hail, Columbia .... Joseph Hopkinson . 
Home as a Xation-Builder, 

The Henry van Dyke . . 

Hymn, Centennial . . . John Greenleaf Whittier 

Inaugural Address, First Thomas Jefferson . 
Inaugural Address, 

Second Abraham Lincoln . 

Independence Bell . . . Anonymous . . . 
Independence, Declara- 
tion of Thomas Jefferson . 

Individual, Attitude of 

the Charles Evans Hughes 



CONTENTS 



xm 



International Mind, The 

League to Enforce Peace, 
A 

Lee, Robert E 

Liberty 

Liberty Enlightening the 
World 

Liberty and the Responsi- 
bility of the Bar, In- 
dividual 

Liberty for All .... 

Lincoln, Abraham . . . 

Menace, The 

Monroe Doctrine, The . 

Monroe Doctrine of the 
World, The .... 

Newspaper, The . 

Ode of Dedication, An 

Pan-Americanism . . 

Patriotism 

Patriotism 

Peace, A Just and 
Generous 

Peace 

People to Rule, The Right 
of the 

Red, White, and Blue 

Revere's Ride, Paul . . 
Revolutionary Rising, 

The 

Routineer and Inventor, 

Political 

Self-Government, The 

Spirit of 



Nicholas Murray Butler 

A. Lawrence Lowell 
Julia Ward Howe . . 
Patrick Henry . . . 



PAGE 

103 

108 
244 

1 



Henry van Dyke 255 



Elihu Root .... 
William Lloyd Garrison 
James Russell Lowell 
Woodrow Wilson 
James Monroe . . 



132 
237 
237 
156 

48 

170 
189 
249 
126 
137 
117 

172 
181 

101 

214 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 229 

Thomas Buchanan Read . , 226 
Walter Lippmann . . . . 104 
Elihu Root 96 



The World's Work . 
F. N. Scott . . . 
Hermann Hagedorn 
Robert Lansing . . 
Lyman Abbott . . 
Nicholas Murray Butler 

Woodrow Wilson . . 
Nicholas Murray Butler 

Theodore Roosevelt . 
David T. Shaw, Thomas a 
Becket 



xiv CONTENTS 



Service, The Aristocracy 

of Henry van Dyke 88 

Star-Spangled Banner, 

The Francis Scott Key .... 207 

State, The Ship of . Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 221 

Struggle, The Great . . Nicholas Murray Butler . . 155 

Training, Military . . . The World's Work . . . . 139 

Training, National . . . Nicholas Murray Butler . . 186 

Union and Liberty . . . Oliver Wendell Holmes . . 223 

Union, The American . . Daniel Webster 74 

Unity, National .... Nicholas Murray Butler . . 183 
War, Why This Is Amer- 
ica's The World's Work .... 153 

World, A Better Place 

to Live in .... The World's Work ... 182 



PART ONE 
AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE 



AMEKICAN PATRIOTISM IN 
PROSE AND VERSE 

SPEECH ON LIBERTY BEFORE VIRGINIA 
CONVENTION 

By Patrick Henry. (March 23, 1775) 

Mr. President : No man thinks more highly than I do 
of the patriotism, as welLas the abilities, of the very worthy 
gentlemen who have/jusg addressed the House. But differ- 
ent men often see the same subject in different lights ; and, 
therefore, I hope that it will not be thought disrespectful 5 
to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do, opinions of a 
character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my 
sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for 
ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful 
moment to this country. For my own part I consider it as 10 
nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery ; and in 
proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the 
freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can 
hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility 
which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep 15 
back my opinion at such a time, through fear of giving 
offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason toward 
my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty 
of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. 
b 1 



2 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

LMr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illu- 
sions of hope. MVe are apt to shut our eyes against a pain- 
ful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she trans- 
forms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged 
5 in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we dis- 
posed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see 
not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly 
concern their temporal salvation ? For my part, whatever 
anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the 

10 whole truth ; to know the worst and to provide for it. 

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided ; and 
that is the lamp of experience. Lknow of no way of judg- 
ing the future but by the past, ^nd judging by the past, 
I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the 

15 British ministry for the last ten years to justify those 
hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace 
themselves and the House? Is it that insidious smile 
with which our petition has been lately received? Trust 
it not, sir ; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not 

20 yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves 
how this gracious reception of our petition comports with 
these warlike preparations which cover our waters and 
darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a 
work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown our- 

25 selves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be 
called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive our- 
selves, sir. These are implements of war and subjugation ; 
the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentle- 
men, sir, what means this martial arra} T , if its purpose be 

30 not to force us to submission ? Can gentlemen assign any 
other possible motives for it? Has Great Britain any 
enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this 
accumulation of navies and armies ? No, sir, she has none. 
They are meant for us ; they can be meant for no other. 

35 They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains 
which the British Ministry have been so long forging. And 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 3 

what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argu- 
ment? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten 
years. Have we anything new to offer on the subject? 
Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of 
which it is capable ; but it has been all in vain. Shall we re- 5 
sort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms 
shall we find which have not been already exhausted ? Let 
us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we 
have done everything that could be done to avert the storm 
which is now coming on. We have petitioned ; we have re- 10 
monstrated ; we have supplicated ; we have prostrated our- 
selves before the throne, and have implored its interposition 
to arrest the tyrannical hands of the Ministry and Parlia- 
ment. Our petitions have been slighted; our remon- 
strances have produced additional violences and insult ; 15 
our supplications have been disregarded; and we have 
been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. 
In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope 
of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room 
for hope. If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve 20 
inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have 
been so long contending — if we mean not basely to 
abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so 
long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never 
to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall 25 
be obtained, we must fight ! I repeat it, sir, we must 
fight ! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all 
that is left us. 

They tell us, sir, that we are weak ; unable to cope with 
so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be 30 
stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? 
Will it be when we are totally disarmed and when a 
British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall 
we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall 
we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying 35 
supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom 



4 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

of hope, until our enemies have bound us hand and foot ? 
Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means 
which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three 
millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and 
5 in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible 
by any force which our enemy can send against us. Be- 
sides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a 
just God who presides over the destinies of nations ; and 
who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The 

10 battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, 
the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. 
If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to 
retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in sub- 
mission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their 

is clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston ! The war 

is inevitable — and let it come ! I repeat, sir, let it come ! 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen 

may cry peace, peace — but there is no peace. The war 

is actually begun ! The next gale that sweeps from the 

20 North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms ! 
Our brethren are already in the field ! Why stand we 
here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would 
they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be 
purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, 

25 Almighty God ! I know not what course others may take ; 
but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death ! 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 5 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

(In Congress, July 4, 1776) 

A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES 
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN 
CONGRESS ASSEMBLED 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes neces- 
sary for one people to dissolve the political bands which 
have connected them with another, and to assume, among 
the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to 
which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, 5 
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that 
they should declare the causes which impel them to the 
separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident : ■ — That all 
men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their 10 
Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to 
secure these rights, governments are instituted among 
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the 
governed; that, whenever any form of government be- 15 
comes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people 
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, 
laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its 
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to 
effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will 20 
dictate, that governments long established should not be 
changed for light and transient causes ; and accordingly 
all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed 
to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves 
by abolishing the forms to which .they are accustomed. 25 
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing 
invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce 
them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their 
duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new 



6 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

guards for their future security. Such has been the patient 
sufferance of these colonies ; and such is now the necessity 
which constrains them to alter their former systems of 
government. The history of the present King of Great 

5 Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, 
all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute 
tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be 
submitted to a candid world. 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome 

10 and necessary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immedi- 
ate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their 
operation till his assent should be obtained ; and when so 
suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

15 He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation 
of large districts of people, unless those people would relin- 
quish the right of representation in the legislature — a 
right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. 
He has called together legislative bodies at places un- 

20 usual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of 
their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them 
into compliance with his measure. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for 
opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights 

25 of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, 
to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative 
powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the 
people at large for their exercise ; the State remaining, in 

50 the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasions 
from without, and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these 
States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for the 
naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to 

35 encourage their migration hither, and raising the condi- 
tions of new appropriations of lands. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 7 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by 
refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary 
powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the 
tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of 5 
their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent 
hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out 
their substance. 

He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, 10 
without the consent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, 
and superior to, the civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a juris- 
diction foreign to our constitutions, and unacknowledged 15 
by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pretended 
legislation : 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment 
for any murders which they should commit on the inhabit- 20 
ants of these States ; 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world ; 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent ; 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial 
by jury; # 25 

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pre- 
tended offences ; 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neigh- 
boring province, establishing therein an arbitrary govern- 
ment, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at 30 
once an example and fit instrument for introducing the 
same absolute rule into these colonies ; 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valu- 
able laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our 
governments ; 35 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring 



8 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AXD VERSE 

themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all 
cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out 
of his protection, and waging war against us. 
5 He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned 
our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign 
mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, 
and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty 

io and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, 
and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on 
the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to be- 
come the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to 

15 fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has 
endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the 
merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare 
is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and 

20 conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned 
for redress hi the most humble terms ; our repeated peti- 
tions have been answered only by repeated injury. A 
prince whose character is thus marked by every act which 

25 may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 
Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our 
British brethren. We have warned them, from time to 
time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an un- 
warrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded 

30 them of the circumstances of our emigration and settle- 
ment here. We have appealed to their native justice 
and magnanimity : and we have conjured them, by the 
ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, 
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and 

35 correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice 
of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, ac- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 9 

quiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, 
and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies 
in war, in peace friends. 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States 
of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to 5 
the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our 
intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the 
good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, 
That these united Colonies are, and of right ought to be, 
free and independent states ; that they are absolved from 10 
all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political 
connection between them and the state of Great Britain 
is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free 
and independent states, they have full power to levy war, 
conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, 15 
and do all other acts and things which independent states 
may of right do. And, for the support of this declaration, 
with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, 
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, 
and our sacred honor. 20 



THE NATURE OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION ° 

By Alexander Hamilton. (June 30, 1788) 

This is one of those subjects, Mr. Chairman, on which ob- 
jections very naturally arise and assume the most plausible 
shape. Its address is to the passions, and its impressions 
create a prejudice before cool examination has an oppor- 
tunity for exertion. It is more easy for the human mind 25 
to calculate the evils than the advantages of a measure, 
and vastly more natural to apprehend the danger than to 
see the necessity of giving powers to our rulers. Hence, 
I may justly expect that those who hear me will place less 
confidence in those arguments which oppose than in those 30 
which favor their prepossessions. 



10 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

After all our doubts, our suspicions and speculations on 
the subject of government, we must return at last to this 
important truth — that when we have formed a constitu- 
tion upon free principles, when we have given a proper 

5 balance to the different branches of the administration, 
and fixed representation upon pure and equal principles, 
we may, with safety, furnish it with all the powers neces- 
sary to answer in the most ample manner the purposes of 
government. The great desiderata ° are a free represent a- 

10 tion and mutual checks. When these are obtained, all our 
apprehensions of the extent of powers are unjust and im- 
aginary. What, then, is the structure of this Constitution ? 
One branch of the legislature is to be elected by the people 
— by the same people who choose your State representa- 

15 lives. Its members are to hold their office two years, and 
then return to their constituents. Here, Sir, the people 
govern ; here they act by their immediate representatives. 
You have also a Senate, constituted by your State legisla- 
tures — by men in whom you place the highest confidence 

20 and forming another representative branch. Then again 
you have an executive magistrate, created by a form of 
election which merits universal admiration. In the form 
of this government, and in the mode of legislation, you 
find all the checks which the greatest politicians and the 

25 best writers have ever conceived. What more can reason- 
able men desire? Is there any one branch in which the 
whole legislative and executive powers are lodged? No. 
The legislative authority is lodged in three distinct 
branches, properly balanced; the executive authority is 

30 divided between two branches ; and the judicial is still 
reserved for an independent body, who hold their offices 
during good behavior. This organization is so complex, 
so skilfully contrived, that it is next to impossible that an 
impolitic or wicked measure should pass the great scrutiny 

35 with success. Now what do gentlemen mean by coming 
forward and declaiming against this government? Why 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 11 

do they say we ought to limit its powers, to disable it, and 
to destroy its capacity of blessing the people? Has phi- 
losophy suggested, has experience taught that such a 
government ought not to be trusted with everything 
necessary for the good of society ? Sir, when you have 5 
divided and nicely balanced the departments of govern- 
ment; when you have strongly connected the virtue of 
your rulers with their interest ; when, in short, you have 
rendered your system as perfect as human forms can be, 
you must place confidence, you must give power. 10 

We have heard a great deal of the sword and the purse ; 
it is said our liberties are in danger if both are possessed 
by Congress. Let us see what is the true meaning of this 
maxim, which has been so much used and so little under- 
stood. It is that you shall not place these powers in either 15 
the legislative or executive singly; neither one nor the 
other shall have both, because this would destroy that 
division of powers on which political liberty is founded, 
and would furnish one body with all the means of tyranny. 
But where the purse is lodged in one branch, and the 20 
sword in another, there can be no danger. All govern- 
ments have possessed these powers; they would be 
monsters without them, and incapable of exertion. What 
is your State government? Does not your legislature 
command what money it pleases ? Does not your execu- 25 
tive execute the laws without restraint? These dis- 
tinctions between the purse and the sword have no appli- 
cation to the system, but only to its separate branches. 
Sir, when we reason about the great interests of a great 
people, it is high time that we dismiss our prejudices and 30 
banish declamation. 

In order to induce us to consider the powers given by 
this constitution as dangerous, in order to render plausible 
any attempt to take away the life and spirit of the most 
important power in government, — the gentleman com- 35 
plains that we shall not have a true and safe representation. 



12 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

I asked him what a safe representation was, and he has 
given no satisfactory answer. The Assembly of New York 
has been mentioned as a proper standard ; but if we apply 
this standard to the general government, our Congress 

swill become a mere mob, exposed to every irregular im- 
pulse, and subject to every breeze of faction. Can such 
a system afford security? Can you have confidence in 
such a body ? The idea of taking the ratio of representa- 
tion in a small society for the ratio of a great one is a fallacy 

10 which ought to be exposed. It is impossible to ascertain 
to what point our representation will increase ; it may vary 
from one to two, three, or four hundred ; it depends upon 
the progress of population. Suppose it is to rest at two 
hundred ; is not this number sufficient to secure it against 

is corruption? Human nature must be a much more weak 
and despicable thing than I apprehend it to be if two hun- 
dred of our fellow-citizens can be corrupted in two years. 
But suppose they are corrupted; can they in two years 
accomplish their designs? Can they form a combina- 

20 tion, and even lay a foundation for a system of tyranny, 
in so short a period ? It is far from my intention to wound 
the feelings of any gentleman; but I must, in this most 
interesting discussion, speak of things as they are, and 
hold up opinions in the light in which they ought to ap- 

25 pear ; and I maintain that all that has been said of corrup- 
tion, of the purse and the sword, and of the danger of 
giving powers, is not supported by principle or fact ; that 
it is mere verbiage and idle declamation. The true prin- 
ciple of government is this : make the system complete in 

30 its structure, give a perfect proportion and balance to its 
parts, and the powers you give it will never affect your 
security. The question, then, of the division of powers 
between the general and state governments is a question 
of convenience; it becomes a prudential inquiry what 

35 powers are proper to be reserved to the latter, and this 
immediately involves another inquiry into the proper 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 13 

objects of the two governments. This is the criterion 
by which we shall determine the just distribution of powers. 
The great leading objects of the federal government, in 
which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic 
peace and provide for the common defence. In these are 5 
comprehended the regulation of commerce; that is, the 
whole system of foreign intercourse, the support of armies 
and navies, and of the civil administration. It is useless 
to go into detail. Every one knows that the objects of 
the general government are numerous, extensive, and im- 10 
portant. Every one must acknowledge the necessity of 
giving powers in all respects, and in every degree equal to 
these objects. The principle assented to, let us inquire 
what are the objects of the State governments. Have they 
to provide against foreign invasion? Have they to main- is 
tain fleets and armies? Have they any concern in the 
regulation of commerce, the procuring alliances, or forming 
treaties of peace ? No. Their objects are merely civil and 
domestic : to support the legislative establishment, and to 
provide for the administration of the laws. Let any one 20 
compare the expense of supporting the civil list in a State 
with the expense of providing for the defence of the Union. 
The difference is almost beyond calculation. The ex- 
perience of Great Britain will throw some light on this 
subject. In that kingdom the ordinary expenses of peace 25 
to those of war are as one to fourteen ; but there they have 
a monarch, with his splendid court, and an enormous civil 
establishment, with which we have nothing in this country 
to compare. If in Great Britain the expenses of war and 
peace are so disproportioned, how wide will be their dis- 30 
parity in the United States ! how infinitely wider between 
the general government and each individual State ! Now, 
Sir, where ought the great resources to be lodged? Every 
rational man will give an immediate answer. To what 
extent shal] these resources be possessed ? Reason says, 35 
as far as possible exigencies can require ; that is, without 



14 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

limitation. A constitution cannot set bounds to a nation's 
wants; it ought not, therefore, to set bounds to its re- 
sources. Unexpected invasions, long and ruinous wars, 
may demand all the possible abilities of the country. 
5 Shall not your government have power to call these 
abilities into action? The contingencies of society are 
not reducible to calculations. They cannot be fixed or 
bounded even in imagination. Will you limit the means 
of your defence when you cannot ascertain the force or 

i o extent of the invasion? Even in ordinary wars a govern- 
ment is frequently obliged to call for supplies to the tem- 
porary oppression of the people. 

Sir, if we adopt the idea of exclusive revenues, we shall 
be obliged to fix some distinguished line which neither 

15 government shall overpass. The inconveniences of this 
measure must appear evident on the slightest examination. 
The resources appropriated to one may diminish or fail, 
while those of the other may increase beyond the wants of 
government. One may be destitute of revenues, while the 

20 other shall possess an unnecessary abundance, and the 
constitution will be an eternal barrier to a mutual inter- 
course and relief. In this case, will the individual states 
stand on so good a ground as if the objects of taxation 
were left free and open to the embrace of both the govern- 

2 5inents? Possibly, in the advancement of commerce, the 
imports may increase to such a degree as to render direct 
taxes unnecessary. These resources, then, as the con- 
stitution stands, may be occasionally relinquished to the 
States; but on the gentleman's idea of prescribing ex- 

30 elusive limits and precluding all reciprocal communication, 
this would be entirely improper. The laws of the States 
must not touch the appropriated resources of the United 
States whatever may be their wants. Would it not be of 
more advantage to the States to have a concurrent juris- 

35 diction extending to all the sources of revenue than to be 
confined to such a small resource as, on calculation of the 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 15 

objects of the two governments, should appear to be their 
due proportion? Certainly you cannot hesitate on this 
question. The gentleman's plan would have a further 
ill effect : it would tend to dissolve the connection and 
correspondence of the two governments, to estrange them s 
from each other, and to destroy that mutual dependence 
which forms the essence of union. Sir, a number of argu- 
ments have been advanced by an honorable member from 
New York, which, to every unclouded mind, must carry 
conviction. He has stated that in sudden emergencies it 10 
may be necessary to borrow, unless you have funds to 
pledge for the payment of your debts. Limiting the 
powers of the government to certain resources is rendering 
the fund precarious ; and obliging the government to ask 
instead of empowering it to command, is to destroy all 15 
confidence and credit. If the power of taxing is restricted, 
the consequence is that, on the breaking out of a war, you 
must divert the funds appropriated to the payment of 
debts to answer immediate exigencies. Thus you violate 
your engagements at the very time you increase the burden 20 
of them. Besides, sound policy condemns the practice of 
accumulating debts. A government, to act with energy, 
should have the possession of all its revenues to answer 
present purposes. The principle for which I contend is 
recognized in all its extent by our old constitution. Con- 25 
gress is authorized to raise troops, to call for supplies with- 
out limitation, and to borrow money to any amount. It 
is true they must use the form of recommendations and 
requisitions ; but the States are bound by the solemn ties 
of honor, of justice, of religion, to comply without reserve. 30 

Mr. Chairman, it has been advanced as a principle that 
no government but a despotism can exist in a very ex- 
tensive country. This is a melancholy consideration 
indeed. If it were founded on truth, we ought to dismiss 
the idea of a republican government, even for the State 35 
of New York. This idea has been taken from a cele- 



16 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

brated writer who, by being misunderstood, has been the 
occasion of frequent fallacies in our reasoning on political 
subjects. But the position has been misapprehended, 
and its application is entirely false and unwarrantable. 
5 It relates only to democracies, where the whole body of the 
people meet to transact business and where representation 
is unknown. Such were a number of ancient and some 
modern independent cities. Men who read without atten- 
tion have taken these maxims respecting the extent of 

i o country, and contrary to their proper meaning have ap- 
plied them to republics in general. This application is 
wrong in respect to all representative governments, but 
especially in relation to a confederacy of States, in which 
the supreme legislature has only general powers, and the 

15 civil and domestic concerns of the people are regulated by 
the laws of the several States. This distinction being kept 
in new, all the difficulty will vanish, and we may easily 
conceive that the people of a large country may be repr 
sented as truly as those of a smaller one. An assembl; 

20 constituted for general purposes may be fully competen 
to every federal regulation, without being too numerous 
for deliberate conduct. If the State governments were to 
be abolished, the question would wear a different face; 
but this idea is inadmissible. They are absolutely neces- 

25 sary to the system. Their existence must form a leading 
principle in the most perfect constitution we could form. 
I insist that it never can be the interest or desire of the 
national Legislature to destroy the State governments. 
It can derive no advantage from such an event ; but, on 

30 the contrary, would lose an indispensable support, a 
necessary aid in executing the laws and conveying the 
influence of government to the doors of the people. The 
Union is dependent on the will of the State governments 
for its chief magistrate and for its Senate. The blow 

35 aimed at the members must give a fatal wound to the 
head, and the destruction of the States must be at once 



1 

at 



■ 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 17 

a political suicide. Can the national government be 
guilty of this madness ? What inducements, what tempta- 
tions, can they have ? Will they attach new honors to their 
station, will they increase the national strength, will they 
multiply the national resources, will they make themselves 5 
more respectable in the view of foreign nations or of their 
fellow-citizens by robbing the States of their constitu- 
tional privileges? But imagine, for a moment, that a 
political frenzy should seize the government; suppose 
they should make the attempt ; certainly, sir, it would be 10 
forever impracticable. This has been sufficiently demon- 
strated by reason and experience. It has been proved that 
the members of republics have been and ever will be 
stronger than the head. Let us attend to one general 
historical example. In the ancient feudal governments of 15 
Europe there were, in the first place, a monarch ; subordi- 
nate to him a body of nobles ; and subject to these, the 
vassals, or the whole body of the people. The authority 
of the kings was limited, and that of the barons consider- 
ably independent. A great part of the early wars in 20 
Europe were contests between the king and his nobility. 
In these contests the latter possessed many advantages 
derived from their influence and the immediate command 
they had over the people, and they generally prevailed. 
The history of the feudal wars exhibits little more than a 25 
series of successful encroachments on the prerogatives of 
monarchy. Here, sir, is one great proof of the superiority 
which the members in limited governments possess over 
their head. As long as the barons enjoyed the confidence 
and attachment of the people, they had the strength of 30 
the country on their side, and were irresistible. I may be 
told that in some instances the barons were overcome; 
but how did this happen? Sir, they took advantage of 
the depression of the royal authority, and the establish- 
ment of their own power, to oppress and tyrannize over 35 
their vassals. As commerce enlarged, and as wealth and 



18 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

civilization increased, the people began to feel their own 
weight and consequence ; they grew tired of their oppres- 
sions, united their strength with that of the prince, and 
threw off the yoke of aristocracy. These very instances 
5 prove what I contend for. They prove that in whatever 
direction the popular weight leans, the current of power 
will flow; wherever the popular attachments lie, there 
will rest the political superiority. Sir, can it be supposed 
that the State governments will become the oppressors of 

10 the people? Will they forfeit their affections? Will they 
combine to destroy the liberties and happiness of their 
fellow-citizens for the sole purpose of involving themselves 
in ruin? The idea, sir, is shocking! It outrages every 
feeling of humanity and every dictate of common sense. 

15 There are certain social principles in human nature from 
which we may draw the most solid conclusions with respect 
to the conduct of individuals and communities. We love 
our families more than our neighbors, we love our neigh- 
bors more than our countrymen in general. The human 

20 affections, like the solar heat, lose their intensity as they 
depart from the centre, and become languid in proportion 
to the expansion of the circle on which they act. On these 
principles the attachment of the individual will be first 
and forever secured by the State governments, they will 

25 be a mutual protection and support. Another source of 
influence, which has already been pointed out, is the various 
official connections in the States. Gentlemen endeavor 
to evade the force of this by saying that these offices will 
be insignificant. This is by no means true. The State 

30 officers will ever be important, because they are necessary 
and useful. Their powers are such as are extremely in- 
teresting to the people; such as affect their property, 
their liberty, and life. What is more important than the 
administration of justice and the execution of the civil and 

35 criminal laws? Can the State governments become in- 
significant while they have the power of raising money 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 19 

independently and without control? If they are really 
useful, if they are calculated to promote the essential 
interests of the people, they must have their confidence 
and support. The States can never lose their powers till 
the whole people of America are robbed of their liberties, s 
These must go together ; they must support each other or 
meet one common fate. On the gentlemen's principle, 
we may safely trust the State governments, though we 
have no means of resisting them ; but we cannot confide 
in the national government, though we have an effectual 10 
constitutional guard against every encroachment. This 
is the essence of their argument, and it is false and fallacious 
beyond conception. 

With regard to the jurisdiction of the two governments, 
I shall certainly admit that the constitution ought to be 15 
so formed as not to prevent the States from providing for 
their own existence ; and I maintain that it is so formed, 
and that their power of providing for themselves is suffi- 
ciently established. This is conceded by one gentleman, 
and in the next breath the concession is retracted. He 20 
says Congress has but one exclusive right in taxation, — 
that of duties on imports; certainly, then, their other 
powers are only concurrent. But to take off* the force of 
this obvious conclusion, he immediately says that the 
laws of the United States are supreme, and that where 25 
there is one supreme there cannot be a concurrent author- 
ity; and further, that where the laws of the Union are 
supreme, those of the States must be subordinate, because 
there cannot be two supremes. This is curious sophistry. 
That two supreme powers cannot act together is false. 30 
They are inconsistent only when they are aimed at each 
other, or at one indivisible object. The laws of the United 
States are supreme as to all their proper constitutional 
objects; the laws of the States are supreme in the same 
way. These supreme laws may act on different objects 35 
without clashing, or they may operate on different parts 



20 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

of the same object, with perfect harmony. Suppose both 
governments should lay a tax of a penny on a certain 
article; has not each an independent and uncontrollable 
power to collect its own tax ? The meaning of the maxim, 
5 there cannot be two supremes, is simply this : two powers 
cannot be supreme over each other. This meaning is en- 
tirely perverted by the gentlemen. But, it is said, dis- 
putes between collectors are to be referred to the federal 
courts. This is again wandering in the field of conjecture. 

ioBut suppose the fact certain; is it not to be presumed 
that they will express the true meaning of the constitution 
and the laws? Will they not be bound to consider this 
concurrent jurisdiction, to declare that both the taxes 
shall have equal operation, that both the powers, in that 

15 respect, are sovereign and coextensive? If they trans- 
gress their duty, we are to hope that they will be punished. 
Sir, we can reason from probabilities alone. When we 
leave common sense and give ourselves up to conjecture, 
there can be no certainty, no security in our reasonings. 

20 I imagine I have stated to the committee abundant 
reasons to prove the entire safety of the State governments 
and of the people. I would go into a more minute con- 
sideration of the nature of the concurrent jurisdiction and 
the operation of the laws in relation to revenue, but at 

25 present I feel too much indisposed to proceed. I shall, 
with leave of the committee, improve another opportunity 
of expressing to them more fully my ideas on this point. 
I wish the committee to remember that the constitution 
under examination is framed upon truly republican prin- 

30 ciples ; and that, as it is expressly designed to provide for 
the common protection and the general welfare of the 
United States, it must be utterly repugnant to this consti- 
tution to subvert the State governments or oppress the 
people. 



AMEBIC AIT PATRIOTISM M PMOSE AKD VERSE 21 



FAREWELL ADDRESS— COUNSEL ON 
ALLIANCES 

By George Washington. (September, 1796) 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens : The period for a 
new election of a citizen, to administer the executive 
government of the United States, being not far distant, 
and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts must 
be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed 5 
with that important trust, it appears to me proper, es- 
pecially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression 
of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the 
resolution I have formed, to decline being considered 
among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be 10 
made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to 
be assured, that this resolution has not been taken with- 
out a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining 
to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country ; 15 
and that, in withdrawing the tender of service, which 
silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by 
no diminution of zeal for your future interest; no de- 
ficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness; but 
am supported by a full conviction that the step is com- 20 
patible with both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the 
office to which your suffrages have twice called me, have 
been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of 
duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your 25 
desire. I constantly hoped, that it would have been much 
earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I 
was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retire- 
ment from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The 
strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last 30 
election, had even led to the preparation of an address to 



22 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then 
perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign 
nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to 
my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. 
5 I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as 
well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of incli- 
nation incompatible with the sentiment of duty or pro- 
priety; and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be 
retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances 

ioof our country, you will not disapprove my determination 
to retire. 

The impressions, with which I first undertook the 
arduous trust, were explained on the proper occasion. 
In the discharge of this trust, I will only say, that I have, 

15 with good intentions, contributed toward the organiza- 
tion and administration of the government the best 
exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. 
Not unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of my 
qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still 

20 more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives 
to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing 
weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the 
shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be 
welcome. Satisfied that, if any circumstances have 

25 given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, 
I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and 
prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism 
does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment which is intended 

30 to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do 
not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of 
that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country 
for the many honors it has conferred upon me ; still more 
for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported 

35 me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of 
manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faith- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 23 

ful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my 
zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these 
services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and 
as an instructive example in our annals, that, under cir- 
cumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direc- 5 
tion, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes 
dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in 
situations in which not unfrequently want of success has 
countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of 
your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a 10 
guaranty of the plans, by which they w^ere effected. Pro- 
foundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me 
to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows, 
that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of 
its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection 15 
may be perpetual ; that the free constitution, which is the 
work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained ; that its 
administration in every department may be stamped with 
wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the 
people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may 20 
be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so 
prudent a use of this blessing, as will acquire to them the 
glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, 
and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for 25 
your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the 
apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge 

I me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn 
contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent re- 
view, some sentiments, which are the result of much re- 30 
flection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which 
appear to me all-important to the permanency of your 
felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with 
the more freedom, as you can only see in them the dis- 
interested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly 35 
have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I 



24 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent recep- 
tion of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar 
occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament 
5 of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary 
to fortify or confirm the attachment. 

The unity of government, which constitutes you one 
people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it 
is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, 

io the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace 
abroad ; of your safety ; of your prosperity ; of that 
very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy 
to foresee, that, from different causes and from different 
quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices em- 

15 ployed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this 
truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against 
which the batteries of internal and external enemies will 
be most constantly and actively (though often covertly 
and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that 

20 you should properly estimate the immense value of your 
national Union to your collective and individual happi- 
ness ; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and 
immovable attachment to it ; accustoming yourselves to 
think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political 

25 safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with 
jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest 
even a suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned ; 
and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every 
attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the 

30 rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together 
the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and 
interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common 
country, that country has a right to concentrate your 

35 affect ions. The name of American, which belongs to 
you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 25 

pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived 
from local discriminations. With slight shades of differ- 
ence, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and 
political principles. You have in a common cause fought 
and triumphed together ; the independence and liberty 5 
you possess are the work of joint counsels and joint efforts, 
of common dangers, sufferings, and successes. 

But these considerations, however powerfully they 
address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly out- 
weighed by those which apply more immediately to your 10 
interest. Here every portion of our country finds the 
most commanding motives for carefully guarding and 
preserving the union of the whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the 
South, protected by the equal laws of a common gov- 15 
ernment, finds in the productions of the latter great ad- 
ditional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise 
and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The 
South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency 
of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce 20 
expand. Turning partly into its own channels the sea- 
men of the North, it finds its particular navigation in- 
vigorated ; and, while it contributes, in different ways, to 
nourish and increase the general mass of the national 
navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime 25 
strength to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, 
in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in 
the progressive improvement of interior communications, 
by land and water, will more and more find, a valuable 
vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, 30 
or manufactures at home. The West derives from the 
East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, 
what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of 
necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable 
outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, 3s 
and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of 



26 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of 
interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the 
West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived 
from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and 
5 unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be 
intrinsically precarious. 

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an 
immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts 
combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means 

ioand efforts greater strength, greater resource, propor- 
tionably greater security from external danger, a less 
frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; 
and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from 
union an exemption from those broils and wars between 

15 themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring coun- 
tries not tied together by the same governments, which 
their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, 
but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and 
intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, like- 

20 wise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown 
military establishments, which, under any form of gov- 
ernment, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to 
be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. 
In this sense it is, that your union ought to be considered 

25 as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the 
one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other. 
These considerations speak a persuasive language to 
every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the con- 
tinuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic 

30 desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government 
can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. 
To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. 
We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of 
the whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for 

35 the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to 
the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experi- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 27 

ment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union 
affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall 
not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will 
always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who 
in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands. 5 

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our 
Union, it occurs as a matter of serious concern, that any 
ground should have been furnished for characterizing 
parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and 
Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing memo 
may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real differ- 
ence of local interests and views. One of the expedients 
of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, 
is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. 
You cannot shield yourselves too much against the 15 
jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these 
misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each 
other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal 
affection. The inhabitants of our western country have 
lately had a useful lesson on this head ; they have seen, in 20 
the negotiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous 
ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and 
in the universal satisfaction at that event throughout the 
United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the 
suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the 25 
general government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly 
to their interests in regard to the Mississippi; they have 
been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with 
Great Britain and that with Spain, which secure to them 
everything they could desire, in respect to our foreign 30 
relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it 
not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these 
advantages on the Union by which they were procured? 
Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such 
there are, who would sever them from their brethren, and 35 
connect them with aliens? 



28 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

To the efficacy and permanency of your union, a gov- 
ernment for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, 
however strict, between the parts can be an adequate 
substitute ; they must inevitably experience the infractions 
5 and interruptions which all alliances in all times have ex- 
perienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have 
improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a con- 
stitution of government better calculated than your former 
for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management 
10 of your common concerns. This government, the off -spring 
of your own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted 
upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely 
free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, 
uniting security with energy, and containing within itself 
15 a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to 
your confidence and your support. Respect for its au- 
thority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its 
measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims 
of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the 
20 right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions 
of government. But the constitution which at any time 
exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the 
whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very 
idea of the power and the right of the people to establish 
25 government presupposes the duty of every individual to 
obey the established government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all com- 
binations and associations, under whatever plausible 
character, with the real design to direct, control, counter- 
so act, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the con- 
stituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental 
principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize 
faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force ; 
to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the 
35 will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising 
minority of the community; and, according to the al- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 29 

ternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public 
administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incon- 
gruous projects of fashion, rather than the organs of con- 
sistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils, 
and modified by mutual interests. 5 

However combinations or associations of the above 
description may now and then answer popular ends, 
they are likely, in the course of time and things, to be- 
come potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and 
unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power 10 
of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of 
government; destroying afterwards the very engines 
which have lifted them to unjust dominion. 

Towards the preservation of your government, and the 
permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, 15 
not only that you steadily discountenance irregular op- 
positions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you 
resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, 
however specious the pretexts. One method of assault 
may be to effect, in the forms of the constitution, altera- 20 
tions, which will impair the energy of the system, and thus 
to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all 
the changes to which you may be invited, remember that 
time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true 
character of governments as of other human institutions; 25 
that experience is the surest standard by which to test 
the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country ; 
that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis 
and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the end- 
less variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember 30 
especially, that, for the efficient management of your 
common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a 
government of as much vigor as is consistent with the 
perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself 
will find in such a government, with powers properly dis-35 
tributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, 



30 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

little else than a name, where the government is too feeble 
to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each 
member of the society within the limits prescribed by the 
laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoy- 
5 ment of the rights of person and property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties 
in the State, with particular reference to the founding of 
them on geographical discrimination. Let me now take 
a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most 

10 solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of 
party, generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our 
nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the 
human mind. It exists under different shapes in all gov- 

15 ernments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; 
but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest 
rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over another, 
sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dis- 

2osension, which in different ages and countries has perpe- 
trated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful 
despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and 
permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which 
result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security 

25 and repose in the absolute power of an individual ; and 
sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more 
able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this 
disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the 
ruins of public liberty. 

30 Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind 
(which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), 
the common and continued mischiefs of the spirit of party 
are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise 
people to discourage and restrain it. 

35 It serves always to distract the public councils, and 
enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the com- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 31 

munity with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; 
kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments 
occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the doors to 
foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated 
access to the government itself through the channels of 5 
party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one 
country are subjected to the policy and will of another. 

There is an opinion, that parties in free countries are 
useful checks upon the administration of the government, 
and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within 10 
certain limits is probably true, and in governments of a 
monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if 
not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of 
the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is 
a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural ten- 15 
dency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit 
for every salutary purpose. And there being constant 
danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public 
opinion to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be 
quenched, it demands a uniform . vigilance to prevent its 20 
bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should 
consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking 
in a free country should inspire caution, in those intrusted 
with its administration, to confine themselves within their 25 
respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise 
of the powers of one department to encroach upon an- 
other. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate 
the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to 
create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. 30 
A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to 
abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is suffi- 
cient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The neces- 
sity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, 
by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, 35 
and constituting each the guardian of the public weal 



32 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

against invasions by the others, has been evinced by ex- 
periments ancient and modern, some of them in our 
country and under our own eyes. To preserve them 
must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the 
5 opinion of the people, the distribution or modification 
of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, 
let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the 
Constitution designates. But let there be no change by 
usurpation ; for, though this, in one instance, may be the 

10 instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which 
free governments are destroyed. The precedent must 
always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial 
or transient benefit which the use can at any time 
yield. 

15 Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political 
prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable sup- 
ports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of 
patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars 
of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of 

20 men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the 
pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A 
volume could not trace all their connections with private 
and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the 
security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense 

25 of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the 
instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And 
let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality 
can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be 
conceded to the influence of refined education on minds 

30 of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid 
us to expect, that national morality can prevail in ex- 
clusion of religious principle. 

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a 
necessary spring of popular government. The rule, in- 

35 deed, extends with more or less force to every species of 
free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 33 

look with indifference upon attempts to shake the founda- 
tion of the fabric ? 

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, 
institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In 
proportion as the structure of a government gives force 5 
to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should 
be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and security, 
cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is, 
to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of 10 
expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that 
timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently 
prevent much greater disbursements to repel it ; avoiding 
likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning 
occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of 15 
peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may 
have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity 
the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The exe- 
cution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, 
but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate. 20 
To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is 
essential that you should practically bear in mind, that 
towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; 
that to have revenue there must be taxes ; that no taxes 
can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient 25 
and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, in- 
separable from the selection of the proper objects (which 
is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive 
motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the 
government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence 30 
in the measures for obtaining revenue which the public 
exigencies may at any time dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; 
cultivate peace and harmonjr with all. Religion and 
morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good 35 
policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a 



34 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, 
to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel ex- 
ample of a people always guided by an exalted justice and 
benevolence. Who can doubt, that, in the course of time 
5 and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any 
temporary advantages, which might be lost by a steady 
adherence to it? Can it be, that Providence has not 
connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its 
virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by 

i o every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is 
it rendered impossible by its vices? 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential 
than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against par- 
ticular nations, and passionate attachments for others, 

15 should be excluded, and that, in place of them, just and 
amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The 
nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, 
or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a 
slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is 

20 sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. 
Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each 
more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight 
causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, 
when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. 

25 Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and 
bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and 
resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, 
contrary to the best calculations of policy. The govern- 
ment sometimes participates in the national propensity, 

30 and adopts through passion what reason would reject; 
at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subser- 
vient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, 
and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace 
often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has been 

35 the victim. 

So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 35 

another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the 
favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary 
common interest in cases where no real common interest 
exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, be- 
trays the former into a participation in the quarrels and 5 
wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justi- 
fication. It leads also to concessions to the favorite 
nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly 
to injure the nation making the concessions, by unneces- 
sarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and 10 
by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, 
in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. 
And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens 
(who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility 
to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, 15 
without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding 
with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a 
commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable 
zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of 
ambition, corruption, or infatuation. 20 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, 
such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly 
enlightened and independent patriot. How many oppor- 
tunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, 
to practise the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, 25 
to influence or awe the public councils ! Such an attach- 
ment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful 
nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the 
latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I con- 30 
jure you to believe me, fellow-citizens), the jealousy of a 
free people ought to be constantly awake, since history 
and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the 
most baneful foes of republican government. But that 
jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes 35 
the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, in- 



36 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

stead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for 
one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause 
those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, 
and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on 
s the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of 
the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; 
while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and con- 
fidence of the people, to surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign 

i o nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have 
with them as little political connection as possible. So 
far as we have already formed engagements, let them be 
fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have 

15 none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be en- 
gaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are 
essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it 
must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial 
ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the 

20 ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships 
or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables 
us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people, 
under an efficient government, the period is not far off, 

25 when we may defy material injury from external annoy- 
ance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause 
the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be 
scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under 
the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not 

30 lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may 
choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, 
shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? 
Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, 

35 by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of 
Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 37 

of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or 
caprice? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances 
with any portion of the foreign world ; so far, I mean, as 
we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be under- 5 
stood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing en- 
gagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public 
than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best 
policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be 
observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it 10 
is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable es- 
tablishments, on a respectable defensive posture, we may 
safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary 
emergencies. is 

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are 
recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But 
even our commercial policy should hold an equal and 
impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive 
favors or preferences ; consulting the natural course of 20 
things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the 
streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing, 
with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable 
course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable 
the government to support them, conventional rules of 25 
intercourse, the best that present circumstances and 
mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to 
be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience 
and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in 
view, that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested 30 
favors from another ; that it must pay with a portion of 
its independence for whatever it may accept under that 
character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself 
in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal 
favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for 35 
not giving more. There can be no greater error than to 



38 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. 
It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just 
pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of 
5 an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will 
make the strong and lasting impression I could wish ; that 
they will control the usual current of the passions, or 
prevent our nation from running the course which has 
hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may 

i o even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some 
partial benefit, some occasional good ; that they may now 
and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to 
warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard 
against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this 

15 hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your 
welfare, by which they have been dictated. 

How far in the discharge of my official duties, I have 
been guided by the principles which have been delineated, 
the public records and other evidences of my conduct 

20 must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the 
assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least 
believed myself to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my 
proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index of my 

25 plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that 
of your Representatives in both Houses of Congress, the 
spirit of that measure has continually governed me, un- 
influenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it. 
After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best 

30 lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, 
under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to 
take, and was boimd in duty and interest to take, a neutral 
position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should 
depend upon me. to maintain it, with moderation, perse- 

.35 verance,. and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to hold 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 39 

this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. 
I will only observe, that, according to my understanding 
of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any 
of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by 
all. , 5 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, 
without anything more, from the obligation which justice 
and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which 
it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of 
peace and amity towards other nations. 10 

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct 
will best be referred to your own reflections and experi- 
ence. With me, a predominant motive has been to en- 
deavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature 
its yet recent institutions, and to progress without inter- 15 
ruption to that degree of strength and consistency which 
is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command 
of its own fortunes. 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administra- 
tion, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am never- 20 
theless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable 
that I may have committed many errors. Whatever 
they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert 
or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall 
also carry with me the hope that my country will never 25 
cease to view them with indulgence ; and that, after forty- 
five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright 
zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned 
to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and 30 
actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so 
natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself 
and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate 
with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise 
myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of 35 
partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign 



40 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

influence of good laws under a free government, the ever 
favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I 
trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers. 

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

By Thomas Jefferson. (March 4, 1801) 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens : Called upon to under- 
5 take the duties of the first executive office of our country, 
I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow- 
citizens which is here assembled, to express my grateful 
thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased 
to look toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness that 

iothe task is above my talents, and that I approach it with 
those anxious and awful presentiments which the great- 
ness of the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly 
inspire. A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful 
land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of 

15 their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who 
feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies 
beyond the reach of mortal eye : when I contemplate these 
transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, 
and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the 

20 issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the con- 
templation and humble myself before the magnitude of 
the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I despair, did 
not the presence of many whom I here see, remind me 
that in the other high authorities provided by our Con- 

25 stitution, I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and 
of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you then, 
gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions 
of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with 
encouragement for that guidance and support, which may 

30 enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all 
embarked amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled 
world. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 41 

During the contest of opinions through which we have 
passed, the animation of discussions and exertions has 
sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers 
unused to think freely, and to speak and to write as they 
think. But this being now decided by the voice of the 5 
nation, enounced according to the rules of the constitu- 
tion, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will 
of the law; and unite in common efforts for the common 
good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle 
that, though the will of the majority is in all cases to 10 
prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable ; that 
the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws 
must protect, and to violate which would be oppression. 

Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and 
one mind ; let us restore to social intercourse that harmony 15 
and affection without which liberty, and even life itself, 
are but dreary things. Let us reflect that, having banished 
from our land that religious intolerance under which man- 
kind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little 
if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as 20 
wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecution. 

During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, 
during the agonized spasms of infuriated man, seeking 
through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was 
not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should 25 
reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this 
should be more felt and feared by some, and should divide 
opinion as to measures of safety. But every difference 
of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called 
by different names brethren of the same principle. We 30 
are all republicans; we are all federalists. If there be 
any among us who wish to dissolve this union, or to change 
its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monu- 
ments of the safety w T ith which error of opinion may be 
tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. 35 

I know, indeed, that some honest men have feared that 



42 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

a republican government cannot be strong ; that this gov- 
ernment is not strong enough. But would the honest 
patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon 
a government which has so far kept us free and firm on 
s the theoretic and visionary fear that this government, the 
world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to pre-, 
serve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, 
the strongest government on earth. I believe it is the 
only one where every man, at the call of the law, would 

i o fly to the standard of the law; would meet invasions of 
public order as his own personal concern. 

Sometimes, it is said, that man cannot be trusted with 
the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with 
the government of others? Or have we found angels in 

15 the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this 
question. Let us, then, pursue with courage and con- 
fidence our own federal and republican principle, our 
attachment to union and representative government. 
Kindly separated by nature, and a wide ocean, from the 

20 exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe, too high- 
minded to endure the degradation of others ; possessing a 
chosen country with room enough for all to the hundredth 
and thousandth generation; entertaining a dull sense of 
our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the ac- 

25 quisition of our own industry, to honor and confidence 
from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from 
our actions and their sense of them, enlightened by a 
benign religion, professed, indeed, and practised in various 
forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temper- 

30 ance, gratitude, and the love of man, acknowledging and 
adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dis- 
pensations proves that it delights in the happiness ©f man 
here and in his greater happiness hereafter. With all 
these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy 

35 and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow- 
citizens : a wise and frugal government which shall restrain 






AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 43 

men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise 
free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improve- 
ment, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread 
it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and 
this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. 5 

About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties 
which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, 
it is proper you should understand what I deem the essen- 
tial principles of this government, and consequently those 
which ought to shape its administration. I will compress 10 
them in the narrowest limits they will bear, stating the 
general principle, but not all its limitations : Equal and 
exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, 
religious or political ; peace, commerce, and honest friend- 
ship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the 15 
support of the State governments in all their rights as the 
most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, 
and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies ; 
the preservation of the general government, in its whole 
constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at 20 
home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of 
election by the people, a mild and safe corrective of abuses, 
which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peace- 
able remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in 
the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of repub- 25 
lies, from which there is no appeal but to force, the vital 
principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well- 
disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the 
first moments of war till regulars may relieve them ; the 
supremacy of the civil over the military authority ; econ- 30 
omy in public expense that labor may be lightly burdened ; 
the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation 
of the public faith ; encouragement of agriculture, and of 
commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information 
and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public 35 
reason; freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and 



44 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

freedom of person under the protection of the habeas 
corpus ; and trial by juries impartially selected. 

These principles form the bright constellation which has 
gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of 
5 revolution and reformation : the wisdom of our sages and 
the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attain- 
ment ; they should be the creed of our political faith, the 
text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the 
services of those we trust : and should we wander from 

i o them in error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps 
and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, 
and safety. 

I repair then, fellow-citizens, to the post which you have 
assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate 

15 stations to know the difficulties of this, the greatest of all, 
I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of 
imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputa- 
tion and the favor which bring him into it. Without 
pretentions to that high confidence you reposed in our 

20 first and greatest revolutionary character, whose preemi- 
nent services had entitled him to the first place in his 
country's love, and had destined for him the fairest page 
in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence 
only as may give firmness and effect to the legal adminis- 

2stration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong through 
defect of judgment ; when right, I shall often be thought 
wrong by those whose positions will not command a view 
of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my errors, 
which will never be intentional ; and your support against 

30 the errors of others, who may condemn what they would 
not, if seen in all its parts. 

The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great con- 
solation to me for the past ; and my future solicitude will 
be to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed 

35 it in advance to conciliate that of others by doing them 
all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the 






AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 45 

happiness and freedom of all. Relying, then on the 
patronage of your good will, I advance with obedience to 
the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become 
sensible how much better choice it is in your power to 
make. And may that infinite Power which rules the 5 
destinies of the universe lead our councils to what is best 
and give them a favorable issue for your peace and pros- 
perity. 

GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 

By Abraham Lincoln. (November 19, 1863) 

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought 
forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, 10 
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created 
equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether 
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, 
can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of 15 
that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that 
field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their 
lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting 
and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense we cannot dedicate — we cannot 20 
consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave 
men, living and dead, who struggled here, have conse- 
crated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The 
world will little note nor long remember what we say here, 
but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, 25 
the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished 
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly 
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the 
great task remaining before us — that from these honored 
dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which 30 
they gave the last full measure of devotion ; that we here 
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ; 



46 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of 
freedom ; and that government of the people, by the 
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

By Abraham Lincoln. (March 4, 1865) 

Fellow-Countrymen : At this second appearance to 
5 take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less occasion 
for an extended address than there was at the first. Then 
a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, 
seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four 
years, during which public declarations have been con- 

io stantly called forth on every point and phase of the great 
contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses 
the energies of the nation, little that is new could be pre- 
sented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else 
chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to my- 

15 self; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and en- 
couraging to all. With high hope for the future, no pre- 
diction in regard to it is ventured. 

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all 
thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil 

20 war. All dreaded it — all sought to avert it. While the 
inaugural address was being delivered from this place, de- 
voted altogether to saving the Union without war, in- 
surgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it with- 
out war — seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide 

25 effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; 
but one of them would make war rather than let the nation 
survive ; and the other would accept war rather than let 
it perish. And the war came. 

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, 

30 not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in 
the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 47 

and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, 
somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, per- 
petuate, and extend this interest was the object for which 
the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war ; while 
the Government claimed no right to do more than to s 
restrict the territorial enlargement of it. 

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the 
duration which it has already attained. Neither antici- 
pated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or 
even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked 10 
for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and 
astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the 
same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. 
It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a 
just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the 15 
sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that 
we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be 
answered — that of neither has been answered fully. 

The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the 
world because of offenses ! for it must needs be that of- 20 
fenses come ; but woe to that man by whom the offense 
cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is 
one of those offenses which, in the Providence of God, 
must needs come, but which, having continued through 
his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he 25 
gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the 
woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we 
discern therein any departure from those divine attributes 
which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him ? 
Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this 30 
mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if 
God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the 
bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil 
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with 
the lash shall be p ; aid by another drawn with the sword, 35 
as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be 

/ 



48 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
altogether." 

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with 
firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let 
5 us strive on to finish the work we are in ; to bind up the 
nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne 
the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all 
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace 
among ourselves, and with all nations. 

THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

By James Monroe. (December 2, 1823) 

io A precise knowledge of our relations with foreign powers 
as respects our negotiations and transactions with each is 
thought to be particularly necessar} r . Equally necessary 
is it that we should form a just estimate of our resources, 
revenue, and progress in every kind of improvement con- 

15 nected with the national prosperity and public defense. It 
is by rendering justice to other nations that we may ex- 
pect it from them. It is by our ability to resent injuries 
and redress wrongs that we may avoid them. . . . 
At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, 

20 made through the minister of the Emperor residing here, 
a full power and instructions have been transmitted to 
the minister of the United States at St. Petersburg to 
arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights and 
interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this 

25 continent. A similar proposal had been made by His 
Imperial Majesty to the Government of Great Britain, 
which has likewise been acceded to. The Government of 
the United States has been desirous by this friendly pro- 
ceeding of manifesting the great ^alue which they have 

30 invariably attached to the friendship^ the Emperor and 
their solicitude to cultivate the best understanding with 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 49 

his Government. In the discussions to which this in- 
terest has given rise and in the arrangements by which 
they may terminate the occasion has been judged proper 
for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and in- 
terests of the United States are involved, that the Ameri- 5 
can continents, by the free and independent condition 
which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth 
not to be considered as subjects for future colonization 
by any European powers. . . . 

It was stated at the commencement of the last session 10 
that a great effort was then making in Spain and Portugal 
to improve the condition of the people of those countries, 
and that it appeared to be conducted with extraordinary 
moderation. It need scarcely be remarked that the result 
has been so far very different from what was then antici- 15 
pated. Of events in that quarter of the globe, with which 
we have so much intercourse and from which we derive our 
origin, we have always been anxious and interested specta- 
tors. The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments 
the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness of 20 
their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars 
of the European powers in matters relating to themselves 
we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with 
our policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded 
or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make 25 
preparation for our defense. With the movements in this 
hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately con- 
nected, and by causes which must be obvious to all en- 
lightened and impartial observers. The political system 
of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect 30 
from that of America. This difference proceeds from that 
which exists in their respective Governments ; and to the 
defense of our own, which has been achieved by the 
loss of so much bloo^Pand treasure, and matured by the 
wisdom of their m r £c enlightened citizens, and under which 35 
we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation 



50 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and the 
amicable relations existing between the United States and 
those powers to declare that we should consider any at- 
tempt on their part to extend their system to any portion 

5 of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. 
With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European 
power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But 
with the Governments who have declared their independ- 
ence and maintained it, and whose independences we have, 

io on great consideration and on just principles, acknowl- 
edged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose 
of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner 
their destiny, by any European power, in any other light 
than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition 

15 toward the United States. In the war between those new 
Governments and Spain we declared our neutrality at 
the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered, 
and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall 
occur which, in the judgment of the competent authorities 

20 of this Government, shall make a corresponding change on 
the part of the United States indispensable to their security. 
The late events in Spain and Portugal show that Eu- 
rope is still unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger 
proof can be adduced than that the allied powers should 

25 have thought it proper, on any principle satisfactory to 
themselves, to have interposed by force in the internal 
concerns of Spain. To what extent such interposition 
may be carried, on the same principle, is a question in 
which all independent powers whose governments differ 

30 from theirs are interested, even those most remote, and 
surely none more so than the United States. Our policy 
in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage 
of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of 
the globe, nevertheless remains the^me, which is, not to 

35 interfere in the internal concerns of arrjs^f its powers; to 
consider the government de facto as the legitimate govern- 



AMEBIC AN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 51 

ment for us ; to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to 
preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy, 
meeting in all instances the just claims of every power, 
submitting to injuries from none. But in regard to those 
continents circumstances are eminently and conspicuously 5 
different. It is impossible that the allied powers should 
extend their political system to any portion of either con- 
tinent without endangering our peace and happiness ; nor 
can any one believe that our southern brethren, if left to 
themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is 10 
equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold such 
interposition in any form with indifference. If we look 
to the comparative strength and resources of Spain and 
those new Governments, and their distance from each 
other, it must be obvious that she can never subdue them. 15 
It is still the true policy of the United States to leave the 
parties to themselves, in the hope that other powers will 
pursue the same course. 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT 
By Daniel Webster. (June 17, 1825) 

This uncounted multitude before me and around me 
proves the feeling which the occasion has excited. These 20 
thousands of human faces, glowing with sympathy and 
joy, and from the impulses of a common gratitude turned 
reverently to heaven in this spacious temple of the firma- 
ment, proclaim that the day, the place, and the purpose 
of our assembling have made a deep impression on our 25 
hearts. 

If, indeed, there be anything in local association fit to 
affect the mind of man, we need not strive to repress the 
emotions which agitate us here. We are among the 
sepulchres of our fathers. We are on ground distinguished 30 
by their valor, their constancy, and the shedding of their 



52 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

blood. We are here, not to fix an uncertain date in our 
annals, nor to draw into notice an obscure and unknown 
spot. If our humble purpose had never been conceived, 
if we ourselves had never been born, the 17th of June, 1775, 
5 would have been a day on which all subsequent history 
would have poured its light, and the eminence where we 
stand a point of attraction to the eyes of successive gen- 
erations. But we are Americans. We live in what may 
be called the early age of this great continent; and we 

io know that our posterity, through all time, are here to 
enjoy and suffer the allotments of humanity. We see 
before us a probable train of great events ; we know that 
our own fortunes have been happily cast ; and it is natural, 
therefore, that we should be moved by the contemplation 

15 of occurrences which have guided our destiny before many 
of us were born, and settled the condition in which we 
should pass that portion of our existence which God allows 
to men on earth. 

We do not read even of the discovery of this continent, 

20 without feeling something of a personal interest in the 
event ; without being reminded how much it has affected 
our own fortunes and our own existence. It would be 
still more unnatural for us, therefore, than for others, to 
contemplate with unaffected minds that interesting, I 

25 may say that most touching and pathetic scene, when the 
great discoverer of America stood on the deck of his shat- 
tered bark, the shades of night falling on the sea, yet no 
man sleeping ; tossed on the billows of an unknown ocean, 
yet the stronger billows of alternate hope and despair 

30 tossing his own troubled thoughts; extending forward 
his harassed frame, straining westward his anxious and 
eager eyes, till Heaven at last granted him a moment of 
rapture and ecstasy, in blessing his vision with the sight 
of the unknown world. 

35 Nearer to our times, more closely connected with our 
fates, and therefore still more interesting to our feelings 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 53 

and affections, is the settlement of our own country by 
colonists from England. We cherish every memorial of 
these worthy ancestors; we celebrate their patience and 
fortitude; we admire their daring enterprise; we teach 
our, children to venerate their piety; and we are justly 5 
proud of being descended from men who have set the 
world an example of founding civil institutions on the great 
and united principles of human freedom and human knowl- 
edge. To us, their children, the story of their labors and 
sufferings can never be without interest. We shall not 10 
stand unmoved on the shore of Plymouth, while the sea 
continues to wash it ; nor will our brethren in another 
early and ancient Colony forget the place of its first es- 
tablishment, till their river shall cease to flow by it. No 
vigor of youth, no maturity of manhood, will lead the 15 
nation to forget the spots where its infancy was cradled 
and defended. 

But the great event in the history of the continent, 
which we are now met here to commemorate, that prodigy 
of modern times, at once the wonder and the blessing of 20 
,the world, is the American Revolution. In a day of 
extraordinary prosperity and happiness, of high national 
honor, distinction, and power, we are brought together, 
in this place, by our love of country, by our admiration of 
exalted character, by our gratitude for signal services and 25 
patriotic devotion. 

The Society whose organ I am was formed for the pur- 
pose of rearing some honorable and durable monument to 
the memory of the early friends of American Independence. 
They have thought that for this object no time could be 30 
more propitious than the present prosperous and peaceful 
period; that no place could claim preference over this 
memorable spot ; and that no day could be more auspicious 
to the undertaking, than the anniversary of the battle 
which was here fought. The foundation of that monu-35 
ment we have now laid. With solemnities suited to the 



54 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

occasion, with prayers to Almighty God for his blessing, 
and in the midst of this cloud of witnesses, we have begun 
the work. We trust it will be prosecuted, and that, 
springing from a broad foundation, rising high in missive 
S solidity and unadorned grandeur, it may remain as long 
as Heaven permits the works of man to last, a fit emblem, 
both of the events in memory of which it is raised, and 
of the gratitude of those who have reared it. 

We know, indeed, that the record of illustrious actions 

io is most safely deposited in the universal remembrance of 
mankind. We know, that if we could cause this structure 
to ascend, not only till it reached the skies, but till it 
pierced them, its broad surfaces could still contain but 
part of that which, in an age of knowledge, hath already 

15 been spread over the earth, and which history charges it- 
self with making known to all future times. We know 
that no inscription on entablatures less broad than the 
earth itself can carry information of the events we com- 
memorate wherfe it has not already gone; and that no 

20 structure, winch shall not outlive the duration of letters 
and knowledge among men, can prolong the memorial. 
But our object is, by this edifice, to show our own deep f 
sense of the value and importance of the achievements of 
our ancestors ; and, by presenting this work of gratitude 

25 to the eye, to keep alive similar sentiments, and to foster 
a constant regard for the principals of the Revolution. 
Human beings are composed, not of reason only, but of 
imagination also, and sentiment ; and that is neither 
wasted nor misapplied which is appropriated to the pur- 

30 pose of giving right direction to sentiments, and opening 
proper springs of feeling in the heart. Let it not be sup- 
posed that our object is to perpetuate national hostility, 
or even to cherish a mere military spirit. It is higher, 
purer, nobler. We consecrate our work to the spirit of 

35 national independence, and we wish that the light of 
peace may rest upon it for ever. We rear a memorial 






AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 55 

of our conviction of that unmeasured benefit which has 
been conferred on our own land, and of the happy influ- 
ences which have been produced, by the same events, on 
the general interests of mankind. We come, as Ameri- 
cans, to mark a spot which must for ever be dear to us s 
and our posterity. We wish that whosoever, in all com- 
ing time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the 
place is not undistinguished where the first great battle 
of the Revolution was fought. We wish that this struc- 
ture may proclaim the magnitude and importance of that 10 
event to every class and every age. We wish that infancy 
may learn the purpose of its erection from maternal lips, 
and that weary and withered age may behold it, and be 
solaced by the recollections which it suggests. We wish 
that labor may look up here, and be proud, in the midst 15 
of its toil. We wish that, in those days of disaster, which, 
as they come upon all nations, must be expected to come 
upon us also, desponding patriotism may turn its eyes 
hitherward, and be assured that the foundations of our 
national power are still strong. We wish that this column, 20 
rising towards heaven among the pointed spires of so many 
temples dedicated to God, may contribute also to pro- 
duce, in all minds, a pious feeling of dependence and 
gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last object to the 
sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to 25 
gladden him who revisits it, may be something which 
shall remind him of the liberty and the glory of his coun- 
try. Let it rise! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his 
coming ; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and 
parting day linger and play on its summit. 30 

We live in a most extraordinary age. Events so various 
and so important that they might crowd and distinguish 
centuries, are, in our times, compressed within the com- 
pass of a single life. When has it happened that history 
has had so much to record, in the same term of years, as $5 
since the 17th of June, 1775? Our own Revolution, 



56 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

which, under other circumstances, might itself have been 
expected to occasion a war of half a century, has been 
achieved, twenty-four sovereign and independent States 
erected ; and a general government established over them, 
5 so safe, so wise, so free, so practical, that we might well 
wonder its establishment should have been accomplished 
so soon, were it not for the greater wonder that it should 
have been established at all. Two or three millions of 
people have been augmented to twelve, the great forests 

ioof the West prostrated beneath the arm of successful in- 
dustry, and the dwellers on the banks of the Ohio and the 
Mississippi become the fellow-citizens and neighbors of 
those who cultivate the hills of New England. We have 
a commerce that leaves no sea unexplored ; navies, which 

15 take no law from superior force; revenues, adequate to 
all the exigencies of government, almost without taxation ; 
and peace with all nations, founded on equal rights and 
mutual respect. 

Europe, within the same period, has been agitated by 

20 a mighty revolution, which, while it has been felt in the 
individual condition and happiness of almost every man, 
has shaken to the centre her political fabric, and dashed 
against one another thrones which had stood tranquil for 
ages. On this, our continent, our own example has been 

25 followed, and colonies have sprung up to be nations. Un- 
accustomed sounds of liberty and free government have 
reached us from beyond the track of the sun ; and at this 
moment the dominion of European power in this con- 
tinent, from the place where we stand to the south pole, 

30 is annihilated for ever. 

In the mean time, both in Europe and America, such 
has been the general progress of knowledge, such the im- 
provement in legislation, in commerce, in the arts, in let- 
ters, and, above all, in liberal ideas and the general spirit 

35 of the age, that the whole world seems changed. 

Yet, notwithstanding that this is but a faint abstract 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 57 

of the things which have happened since the day of the 
battle of Bunker Hill, we are but fifty years removed from 
it ; and we now stand here to enjoy all the blessings of our 
own condition, and to look abroad on the brightened pros- 
pects of the world, while we still have among us some of 5 
those who were active agents in the scenes of 1775, and 
who are now here, from every quarter of New England, to 
visit once more, and under circumstances so affecting, I 
had almost said so overwhelming, this renowned theatre 
of their courage and patriotism. 10 

Venerable men! you have come down to us from a 
former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened 
out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day. 
You are now where you stood fifty years ago, this very 
hour, with your brothers and your neighbors, shoulder to 15 
shoulder, in the strife for your country. Behold, how 
altered ! The same heavens are indeed over your heads ; 
the same ocean rolls at your feet ; but all else how changed ! 
You hear now no roar of hostile cannon, you see no mixed 
volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning Charles- 20 
town. The ground strewed with the dead and the dying ; 
the impetuous charge ; the steady and successful repulse ; 
the loud call to repeated assault; the summoning of all 
that is manly to repeated resistance ; a thousand bosoms 
freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of 25 
terror there may be in war and death ; — all these you 
have witnessed, but you witness them no more. All is 
peace. The heights of yonder metropolis, its towers and 
roofs, which you then saw filled with wives and children 
and countrymen in distress and terror, and looking with 30 
unutterable emotions for the issue of the combat, have 
presented you to-day with the sight of its whole happy 
population, come out to welcome and greet you with a 
universal jubilee. Yonder proud ships, by a felicity of 
position appropriately lying at the foot of this mount, and 35 
seeming fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoy- 



58 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

ance to you, but your country's own means of distinction 
and defence. All is peace; and God has granted you 
this sight of your country's happiness, ere you slumber 
in the grave. He has allowed you to behold and to par- 
5 take the reward of your patriotic toils; and he has al- 
lowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet you here, 
and in the name of the present generation, in the name of 
your country, in the name of liberty, to thank you ! 

But, alas ! you are not all here ! Time and the sword 

iohave thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, 
Brooks, Reed, Pomeroy, Bridge! our eyes seek for you 
in vain amid this broken band. You are gathered to your 
fathers, and live only to your country in her grateful re- 
membrance and your own bright example. But let us 

15 not too much grieve, that you have met the common fate 
of men. You lived at least long enough to know that your 
work had been nobly and successfully accomplished. You 
lived to see your country's independence established, and 
to sheathe your swords from war. On the light of Liberty 

20 you saw arise the light of Peace, like 

1 ' another morn, 
Risen on mid-noon ; " 

and the sky on which you closed your eyes was cloudless. 
But, ah! Him! the first great martyr in this great 

25 cause! Him! the premature victim of his own self-de- 
voting heart ! Him ! the head of our civil councils, and 
the destined leader of our military bands, whom nothing 
brought hither but the unquenchable fire of his own spirit ! 
Him ! cut off by Providence in the hour of overwhelming 

30 anxiety and thick gloom; falling ere he saw the star of 
his country rise; pouring out his generous blood like 
water, before he knew whether it would fertilize a land of 
freedom or of bondage ! — how shall I struggle with the 
emotions that stifle the utterance of thy name! Our 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 59 

poor work may perish; but thine shall endure! This 
monument may moulder away ; the solid ground it rests 
upon may sink down to a level with the sea; but thy 
memory shall not fail ! Wheresoever among men a heart 
shall be found that beats to the transports of patriotism 5 
and liberty, its aspirations shall be to claim kindred with 
thy spirit. 

But the scene amidst which we stand does not permit 
us to confine our thoughts or our sympathies to those 
fearless spirits who hazarded or lost their lives on this 10 
consecrated spot. We have the happiness to rejoice here 
in the presence of a most worthy representation of the 
survivors of the whole Revolutionary army. 

Veterans ! you are the remnant of many a well-fought 
field. You bring with you marks of honor from Trenton 15 
and Monmouth, from Yorktown, Camden, Bennington, 
and Saratoga. Veterans of half a century ! when in 
your youthful days you put every thing at hazard in your 
country's cause, good as that cause was, and sanguine as 
youth is, still your fondest hopes did not stretch onward to 20 
an hour like this ! At a period to which you could not 
reasonably have expected to arrive, at a moment of 
national prosperity such as you could never have foreseen, 
you are now met here to enjoy the fellowship of old soldiers, 
and to receive the overflowings of a universal gratitude. 25 

But your agitated countenances and your heaving 
breasts inform me that even this is not an unmixed joy. 
I perceive that a tumult of contending feelings rushes 
upon you. The images of the dead, as well as the per- 
sons of the living, present themselves before you. The 30 
scene overwhelms you, and I turn from it. May the 
Father of all mercies smile upon your declining years, and 
bless them! And when you shall here have exchanged 
your embraces, when you shall once more have pressed 
the hands which have been so often extended to give sue- 35 
cor in adversity, or grasped in the exultation of victory, 



60 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

then look abroad upon this lovely land which your young 
valor defended, and mark the happiness with which it is 
filled; yea, look abroad upon the whole earth* and see 
what a name you have contributed to give to your coun- 
5 try, and what a praise you have added to freedom, and 
then rejoice in the sympathy and gratitude which beam 
upon your last davs from the improved condition of man- 
kind ! 

The occasion does not require of me any particular 

10 account of the battle of the 17th of June, 1775, nor any 
detailed narrative of the events which immediately pre- 
ceded it. These are familiarly known to all. In the 
progress of the great and interesting controversy, Massa- 
chusetts and the town of Boston had become early and 

1 5 marked objects of the displeasure of the British Parlia- 
ment. This had been manifested in the act for altering 
the government of the Province, and in that for shutting 
up the port of Boston. Nothing sheds more honor on 
our early history, and nothing better shows how little the 

20 feelings and sentiments of the Colonies were known or 
regarded in England, than the impression which these 
measures everywhere produced in America. It had been 
anticipated, that while the Colonies in general would be 
terrified by the severity of the punishment inflicted on 

25 Massachusetts, the other seaports would be governed by 
a mere spirit of gain ; and that, as Boston was now cut off 
from all commerce, the unexpected advantage which this 
blow on her was calculated to confer on other towns would 
be greedily enjoyed. How miserably such reasoners de- 

3 oceived themselves! How little they knew of the depth, 
and the strength, and the intenseness of that feeling of 
resistance to illegal acts of power, which possessed the 
whole American people ! Everywhere the unworthy boon 
was rejected with scorn. The fortunate occasion was 

35 seized, everywhere, to show to the whole world that the 
Colonies were swayed by no local interest, no partial 



AMEBIC AN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 61 

interest, no selfish interest. The temptation to profit by 
the punishment of Boston was strongest to our neighbors 
of Salem. Yet Salem was precisely the place where this 
miserable proffer was spurned, in a tone of the most lofty 
self-respect and the most indignant patriotism. "We are 5 
deeply affected," said its inhabitants, "with the sense of 
our public calamities ; but the miseries that are now rapidly 
hastening on our brethren in the capital of the Province 
greatly excite our commiseration. By shutting up the 
port of Boston some imagine that the course of trade might 10 
be turned hither and to our benefit ; but we must be dead 
to every idea of justice, lost to all feelings of humanity, 
could we indulge a thought to seize on wealth and raise 
our fortunes on the ruin of our suffering neighbors." 
These noble sentiments were not confined to our immedi- 1 5 
ate vicinity. In that day of general affection and brother- 
hood, the blow given to Boston smote on every patriotic 
heart from one end of the country to the other. Vir- 
ginia and the Carolinas, as well as Connecticut and New 
Hampshire, felt and proclaimed the cause to be their own. 20 
The Continental Congress, then holding its first session in 
Philadelphia, expressed its sympathy for the suffering 
inhabitants of Boston, and addresses were received from 
all quarters, assuring them that the cause was a common 
one, and should be met by common efforts and common 25 
sacrifices. The Congress of Massachusetts responded to 
these assurances; and in an address to the Congress at 
Philadelphia, bearing the official signature, perhaps among 
the last, of the immortal Warren, notwithstanding the 
severity of its suffering and the magnitude of the dangers 30 
which threatened it, it was declared, that this Colony "is 
ready, at all times, to spend and to be spent in the cause 
of America." 

But the hour drew nigh which was to put professions 
to the proof, and to determine whether the authors of 35 
these mutual pledges were ready to seal them in blood. 



62 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

The tidings of Lexington and Concord had no sooner 
spread, than it was universally felt that the time was at 
last come for action. A spirit pervaded all ranks, not 
transient, not boisterous, but deep, solemn, determined, 

5 "totamque infusa per artus 

Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet. ,, 

War on their own soil and at their own doors was, in- 
deed, a strange work to the yeomanry of New England ; 
but their consciences were convinced of its necessity, their 

10 country called them to it, and they did not withhold them- 
selves from the perilous trial. The ordinary occupations 
of life were abandoned; the plough was stayed in the 
unfinished furrow; wives gave up their husbands, and 
mothers gave up their sons, to the battles of the civil 

15 war. Death might come in honor, on the field ; it might 
come in disgrace, on the scaffold. For either and for 
both they were prepared. The sentiment of Quincy was 
full in their hearts. " Blandishments/ ' said that dis- 
tinguished son of genius and patriotism, "will not fascinate 

20 us, nor will threats of a halter intimidate ; for, under God, 
we are determined, that, wheresoever, whensoever, or 
howsoever, we shall be called to make our exit, we will 
die free men." 

The 17th of June saw the four New England Colonies 

25 standing here, side by side, to triumph or to fall together ; 
and there was with them from that moment to the end of 
the war, what I hope will remain with them for ever, one 
cause, one country, one heart. 

The battle of Bunker Hill was attended with the most 

30 important effects beyond its immediate results as a mili- 
tary engagement. It created at once a state of open, 
public war. There could now be no longer a question of 
proceeding against individuals, as guilty of treason or re- 
bellion. That fearful crisis was past. The appeal lay to 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 63 

the sword, and the only question was, whether the spirit 
and the resources of the people would hold out, till the 
object should be accomplished. Nor were its general con- 
sequences confined to our own country. The previous 
proceedings of the Colonies, their appeals, resolutions, 5 
and addresses, had made their cause known to Europe. 
Without boasting, we may say, that in no age or country 
has the public cause been maintained with more force of 
argument, more power of illustration, or more of that 
persuasion which excited feeling and elevated principle 10 
can alone bestow, than the Revolutionary state papers 
exhibit. These papers will for ever deserve to be studied, 
not only for the spirit which they breathe, but for the ability 
with which they were written. 

To this able vindication of their cause, the Colonies 15 
had now added a practical and severe proof of their own 
true devotion to it, and given evidence also of the power 
which they could bring to its support. All now saw, that 
if America fell, she would not fall without a struggle. Men 
felt sympathy and regard, as well as surprise, when they 20 
beheld these infant states, remote, unknown, unaided, 
encounter the power of England, and, in the first consider- 
able battle, leave more of their enemies dead on the field, 
in proportion to the number of combatants, than had been 
recently known to fall in the wars of Europe. 25 

Information of these events, circulating throughout 
the world, at length reached the ears of one who now 
hears me. He has not forgotten the emotion which the 
fame of Bunker Hill, and the name of Warren, excited in 
his youthful breast. 30 

Sir, we are assembled to commemorate the establish- 
ment of great public principles of liberty, and to do honor 
to the distinguished dead. The occasion is too severe for 
eulogy of the living. But, Sir, your interesting relation 
to this country, the peculiar circumstances which sur- 35 
round you and surround us, call on me to express the 



64 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

happiness which we derive from your presence and aid 
in this solemn commemoration. 

Fortunate, fortunate man! with what measure of de- 
votion will you not thank God for the circumstances of 
5 your extraordinary life! You are connected with both 
hemispheres and with two generations. Heaven saw fit 
to ordain that the electric spark of liberty should be con- 
ducted, through you, from the New World to the Old; 
and we, who are now here to perform this duty of patriot- 

10 ism, have all of us long ago received it in charge from our 
fathers to cherish your name and your virtues. You will 
account it an instance of 3 T our good fortune, Sir, that you 
crossed the seas to visit us at a time which enables you to 
be present at this solemnity. You now behold the field, 

15 the renown of which reached you in the heart of France, 
and caused a thrill in your ardent bosom. You see the 
lines of the little redoubt thrown up by the incredible 
diligence of Prescott ; defended, to the last extremity, by 
his lion-hearted valor; and within which the corner- 

20 stone of our monument has now taken its position. You 
see where Warren fell, and where Parker, Gardner, Mc- 
Clary, Moore, and other early patriots fell with him. 
Those who survived that day, and whose lives have been 
prolonged to the present hour, are now around you. 

25 Some of them you have known in the trying scenes of the 

war. Behold ! they now stretch forth their feeble arms to 

embrace you. Behold ! they raise their trembling voices 

to invoke the blessing of God on you and yours for ever. 

Sir, you have assisted us in laying the foundation of 

30 this structure. You have heard us rehearse, with our 
feeble commendation, the names of departed patriots. 
Monuments and eulogy belong to the dead. We give 
them this day to Warren and his associates. On other 
occasions they have been given to your more immediate 

35 companions in arms, to Washington, to Greene, to Gates, 
to Sullivan, and to Lincoln. We have become reluctant 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 65 

to grant these, our highest and last honors, further. We 
would gladly hold them yet back from the little remnant 
of that immortal band. "Series in caelum reelects." Illus- 
trious as are your merits, yet far, 0, very far distant be 
the day, when any inscription shall bear your name, or 5 
any tongue pronounce its eulogy ! 

The leading reflection to which this occasion seems to 
invite us, respects the great changes which have hap- 
pened in the fifty years since the battle of Bunker Hill 
was fought. And it peculiarly marks the character of the 10 
present age, that, in looking at these changes, and in 
estimating their effect on our condition, we are obliged to 
consider, not what has been done in our country only 
but in others also. In these interesting times, while 
nations are making separate and individual advances in 15 
improvement, they make, too, a common progress; like 
vessels on a common tide, propelled by the gales at dif- 
ferent rates, according to their several structure and 
management, but all moved forward by one mighty cur- 
rent, strong enough to bear onward whatever does not 20 
sink beneath it. 

A chief distinction of the present day is a community of 
opinions and knowledge amongst men in different nations, 
existing in a degree heretofore unknown. Knowledge has, 
in our time, triumphed, and is triumphing, over distance, 25 
over difference of languages, over diversity of habits, over 
prejudice, and over bigotry. The civilized and Christian 
world is fast learning the great lesson, that difference of 
nation does not imply necessary hostility, and that all 
contact need not be war. The whole world is becoming a 30 
common field for intellect to act in. Energy of mind, 
genius, power, wheresoever it exists, may speak out in 
any tongue, and the world will hear it. A great chord of 
sentiment and feeling runs through two continents, and 
vibrates over both. Every breeze wafts intelligence from 35 
country to country ; every wave rolls it ; all give it forth, 



66 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

and all in turn receive it. There is a vast commerce of 
ideas ; there are marts and exchanges for intellectual dis- 
coveries, and a wonderful fellowship of those individual 
intelligences which make up the mind and opinion of the 
5 age. Mind is the great lever of all things ; human thought 
is the process by which human ends are ultimately an- 
swered ; and the diffusion of knowledge, so astonishing in 
the last half-century, has rendered innumerable minds, 
variously gifted by nature, competent to be competitors 

ioor fellow-workers on the theatre of intellectual operation. 

From these causes important improvements have 

taken place in the personal condition of individuals. 

Generally speaking, mankind are not only better fed and 

better clothed, but they are able also to enjoy more leisure ; 

15 they possess more refinement and more self-respect. A 
superior tone of education, manners, and habits prevails. 
This remark, most true in its application to our own 
country, is also partly true when applied elsewhere. It is 
proved by the vastly augmented consumption of those 

20 articles of manufacture and of commerce which contribute 
to the comforts and the decencies of life ; an augmentation 
which has far outrun the progress of population. And 
while the unexampled and almost incredible use of machin- 
ery would seem to supply the place of labor, labor still 

25 finds its occupation and its reward ; so wisely has Provi- 
dence adjusted men's wants and desires to their condition 
and their capacity. 

Any adequate survey, however, of the progress made 
during the last half -century in the polite and the mechanic 

30 arts, in machinery and manufactures, in commerce and 
agriculture, in letters and in science, would require volumes. 
I must abstain wholly from these subjects, and turn for 
a moment to the contemplation of what has been done 
on the great question of politics and government. This 

35 is the master topic of the age ; and during the whole fifty 
years it has intensely occupied the thoughts of men. The 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 67 

nature of civil government, its ends and uses, have been 
canvassed and investigated; ancient opinions attacked 
and defended; new ideas recommended and resisted, by 
whatever power the mind of man could bring to the con- 
troversy. From the closet and the public halls the debate 5 
has been transferred to the field ; and the world has been 
shaken by wars of unexampled magnitude, and the great- 
est variety of fortune. A day of peace has at length suc- 
ceeded; and now that the strife has subsided, and the 
smoke cleared away, we may begin to see what has ac- 10 
tually been done, permanently changing the state and 
condition of human society. And, without dwelling on 
particular circumstances, it is most apparent, that, from 
the before-mentioned causes of augmented knowledge 
and improved individual condition, a real, substantial, 15 
and important change has taken place, and is taking place, 
highly favorable, on the whole, to human liberty and 
human happiness. 

The great wheel of political revolution began to move 
in America. Here its rotation was guarded, regular, and 20 
safe. Transferred to the other continent, from unfor- 
tunate but natural causes, it received an irregular and 
violent impulse ; it whirled along with a fearful celerity ; 
till at length, like the chariot-wheels in the races of an- 
tiquity, it took fire from the rapidity of its own motion, 25 
and blazed onward, spreading conflagration and terror 
around. 

We learn from the result of this experiment, how for- 
tunate was our own condition, and how admirably the 
character of our people was calculated for setting the great 30 
example of popular governments. The possession of 
power did not turn the heads of the American people, for 
they had long been in the habit of exercising a great de- 
gree of self-control. Although the paramount authority 
of the parent state existed over them, yet a large field of 35 
legislation had always been open to our Colonial assemblies. 



68 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

They were accustomed to representative bodies and the 
forms of free government ; they understood the doctrine 
of the division of power among different branches, and 
the necessity of checks on each. The character of our 
5 countrymen, moreover, was sober, moral, and religious ; 
and there was little in the change to shock their feelings 
of justice and humanity, or even to disturb an honest 
prejudice. We had no domestic throne to overturn, 
no privileged orders to cast down, no violent changes of 

io property to encounter. In the American Revolution, no 
man sought or wished for more than to defend and enjoy 
his own. None hoped for plunder or for spoil. Rapacity 
was unknown to it ; the axe was not among the instru- 
ments of its accomplishments; and we all know that it 

15 could not have lived a single day under any well-founded 
imputation of possessing a tendency adverse to the Chris- 
tian religion. 

It need not surprise us, that, under circumstances less 
auspicious, political revolutions elsewhere, even when well 

20 intended, have terminated differently. It is, indeed, a 
great achievement, it is the master-work of the world, 
to establish governments entirely popular on lasting foun- 
dations; nor is it easy, indeed, to introduce the popular 
principle at all into governments to which it has been 

25 altogether a stranger. It cannot be doubted, however, 
that Europe has come out of the contest, in which she 
has been so long engaged, with greatly superior knowl- 
edge, and, in many respects, in a highly improved con- 
dition. Whatever benefit has been acquired is likely to 

30 be retained, for it consists mainly in the acquisition of 
more enlightened ideas. And although kingdoms and 
provinces may be wrested from the hands that hold them, 
in the same manner they were obtained; although ordi- 
nary and vulgar power may, in human affairs, be lost as 

35 it has been won ; yet it is the glorious prerogative of the 
empire of knowledge, that what it gains it never loses. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 69 

On the contrary, it increases by the multiple of its own 
power ; all its ends become means ; all its attainments, 
helps to new conquests. Its whole abundant harvest is 
but so much seed wheat, and nothing has limited, and 
nothing can limit, the amount of ultimate product. 5 

Under the influence of this rapidly increasing knowl- 
edge, the people have begun, in all forms of government, 
to think, and to reason, on affairs of state. Regarding 
government as an institution for the public good, they 
demand a knowledge of its operations, and a participa- 10 
tion in its exercise. A call for the representative system, 
wherever it is not enjoyed, and where there is already 
intelligence enough to estimate its value, is perseveringly 
made. Where men may speak out, they demand it; 
where the bayonet is at their throats, they pray for it. 15 

When Louis the Fourteenth said, "I am the state," 
he expressed the essence of the doctrine of unlimited 
power. By the rules of that system, the people are dis- 
connected from the state ; they are its subjects, it is their 
lord. These ideas, founded in the love of power, and 20 
long supported by the excess and the abuse of it, are yield- 
ing, in our age, to other opinions ; and the civilized world 
seems at last to be proceeding to the conviction of that 
fundamental and manifest truth, that the powers of 
government are but a trust, and that they cannot be law- 25 
fully exercised but for the good of the community. As 
knowledge is more and more extended, this conviction 
becomes more and more general, Knowledge, in truth, 
is the great sun in the firmament. Life and power are 
scattered with all its beams. The prayer of the Grecian 30 
champion, when enveloped in unnatural clouds and 
darkness, is the appropriate political supplication for the 
people of every country not yet blessed with free in- 
stitutions : — 

"Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore, 35 

Give me to see, — and Ajax asks no more." 



70 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

We may hope that the growing influence of enlightened 
sentiment will promote the permanent peace of the world. 
Wars to maintain family alliances, to uphold or to cast 
down dynasties, and to regulate successions to thrones, 
5 which have occupied so much room in the history of 
modern times, if not less likely to happen at all, will be 
less likely to become general and involve many nations 
as the great principle shall be more and more established, 
that the interest of the world is peace, and its first great 

i o statute, that every nation possesses the power of estab- 
lishing a government for itself. But public opinion has 
attained also an influence over governments which do 
not admit the popular principle into their organization. 
A necessary respect for the judgment of the world operates, 

1 5 in some measure, as a control over the most unlimited 
forms of authority. It is owing, perhaps, to this truth, 
that the interesting struggle of the Greeks has been suf- 
fered to go on so long, without a direct interference, either 
to wrest that country from its present masters, or to ex- 

20 ecute the system of pacification by force, and, with united 
strength, lay the neck of Christian and civilized Greek at 
the foot of the barbarian Turk. Let us thank God that 
we live in an age when something has influence besides 
the bayonet, and when the sternest authority does not 

25 venture to encounter the scorching power of public re- 
proach. Any attempt of the kind I have mentioned 
should be met by one universal burst of indignation ; the 
air of the civilized world ought to be made too warm to be 
comfortably breathed by any one who would hazard it. 

3 o It is, indeed, a touching reflection, that, while, in the 
fulness of our country's happiness, we rear this monument 
to her honor, we look for instruction in our undertaking 
to a country which is now in fearful contest, not for works 
of art or memorials of glory, but for her own existence. 

35 Let her be assured, that she is not forgotten in the world ; 
that her efforts are applauded, and that constant prayers 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 71 

ascend for her success. And let us cherish a confident 
hope for her final triumph. If the true spark of religious 
and civil liberty be kindled, it will burn. Human agency 
cannot extinguish it. Like the earth's central fire, it 
may be smothered for a time ; the ocean may overwhelm 5 
it; mountains may press it down; but its inherent and 
unconquerable force will heave both the ocean and the 
land, and at some time or other, in some place or other, 
the volcano will break out and flame up to heaven. 

Among the great events of the half-century, we must 10 
reckon, certainly, the revolution of South America; and 
we are not likely to overrate the importance of that revo- 
lution, either to the people of the country itself or to the 
rest of the world. The late Spanish colonies, now inde- 
pendent states, under circumstances less favorable, doubt- 15 
less, than attended our own revolution, have yet suc- 
cessfully commenced their national existence. They 
have accomplished the great object of establishing their 
independence ; they are known and acknowledged in the 
world ; and although in regard to their systems of gov- 20 
ernment, their sentiments on religious toleration, and 
their provision for public instruction, they may have yet 
much to learn, it must be admitted that they have risen 
to the condition of settled and established states more 
rapidly than could have been reasonably anticipated. 25 
They already furnish an exhilarating example of the dif- 
ference between free governments and despotic misrule. 
Their commerce, at this moment, creates a new activity 
in all the great marts of the world. They show themselves 
able, by an exchange of commodities, to bear a useful 30 
part in the intercourse of nations. 

A new spirit of enterprise and industry begins to pre- 
vail; all the great interests of society receive a salutary 
impulse; and the progress of information not only tes- 
tifies to an improved condition, but itself constitutes the 35 
highest and most essential improvement. 



12 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IX PROSE AND VERSE 

When the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, the existence 
of South America was scarcely felt in the civilized world. 
The thirteen little colonies of North America habitually 
called themselves the "continent." Borne down by 
5 colonial subjugation, monopoly, and bigotry, these vast 
regions of the South were hardly visible above the horizon. 
But in our day there has been, as it were, a new creation. 
The southern hemisphere emerges from the sea. Its 
lofty mountains begin to lift themselves into the light of 

io heaven ; its broad and fertile plains stretch out, in beauty, 

to the eye of civilized man, and at the mighty bidding of 

the voice of political liberty the waters of darkness retire. 

And now, let us indulge an honest exultation in the 

conviction of the benefit which the example of our country 

15 has produced, and is likely to produce, on human freedom 
and human happiness. Let us endeavor to comprehend 
in all its magnitude, and to feel in all its importance, the 
part assigned to us in the great drama of human affairs. 
We are placed at the head of the system of representative 

20 and popular governments. Thus far our example shows 
that such governments are compatible, not only with 
respectability and power, but with repose, with peace, 
with security of personal rights, with good laws, and a 
just administration. 

25 We are not propagandists. Wherever other systems are 
preferred, either as being thought better hi themselves, 
or as better suited to existing conditions, we leave the 
preference to be enjoyed. Our history hitherto proves, 
however, that the popular form is practicable, and that 

30 with wisdom and knowledge men may govern themselves ; 
and the duty incumbent on us is to preserve the consist- 
ency of this cheering example, and take care that noth- 
ing may weaken its authority with the world. If, in our 
case, the representative system ultimately fail, popular 

35 governments must be pronounced impossible. No com- 
bination of circumstances more favorable to the experi- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 73 

ment can ever be expected to occur. The last hopes of 
mankind, therefore, rest with us ; and if it should be pro- 
claimed, that our example had become an argument 
against the experiment, the knell of popular liberty 
would be sounded throughout the earth. 5 

These are excitements to duty; but they are not sug- 
gestions of doubt. Our history and our condition, all 
that is gone before us, and all that surrounds us, authorize 
the belief, that popular governments, though subject to 
occasional variations, in form perhaps not always for the 10 
better, may yet, in their general character, be as durable 
and permanent as other systems. We know, indeed, that 
in our country any other is impossible. The principle of 
free governments adheres to the American soil. It is 
bedded in it, immovable as its mountains. 15 

And let the sacred obligations which have devolved on 
this generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts. 
Those who established our liberty and our government 
are daily dropping from among us. The great trust 
now descends to new hands. Let us apply ourselves to 20 
that which is presented to us, as our appropriate object. 
We can win no laurels in a war for independence. Earlier 
and worthier hands have gathered them all. Nor are 
there places for us by the side of Solon, and Alfred, and 
other founders of states. Our fathers have filled them. 25 
But there remains to us a great duty of defence and 
preservation; and there is opened to us, also, a noble 
pursuit, to which the spirit of the times strongly invites 
us. Our proper business is improvement. Let our age 
be the age of improvement. In a day of peace, let us 30 
advance the arts of peace and the works of peace. Let 
us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, 
build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, 
and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may 
not perform something worthy to be remembered. Let 35 
us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In pur- 



74 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

suing the great objects which our condition points out to 
us, let us act under a settled conviction, and an habitual 
feeling, that these twenty-four States are one country. 
Let our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties. 
5 Let us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field 
in which we are called to act. Let our object be, our 

COUNTRY, OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR 

country. And, by the blessing of God, may that 
country itself become a vast and splendid monument, 
io not of oppression and terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, 
and of Liberty, upon which the world may gaze with ad- 
miration for ever. 



THE AMERICAN UNION 

By Daniel Webster. (January 26, 1830) 

I profess, sir, in my career hitherto to have kept 
steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole 

15 country, and the preservation of our Federal Union. It 
is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our 
consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union 
that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most 
proud of our country. The Union we reached only by 

20 the discipline of our virtues in the severe school of ad- 
versity. It has its origin in the necessities of disordered 
finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under 
its benign influences these great interests immediately 
awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness 

25 of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh 
proofs of its utility and its blessings; and although our 
territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our 
population spread farther and farther, they have not out- 
run its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a 

30 copious fountain of national, social, and personal hap- 
piness. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 75 

I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the 
Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess 
behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of pre- 
serving liberty when the bonds that unite us together 
shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself 5 
to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, 
with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss 
below ; nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the 
affairs of this Government, whose thoughts should mainly 
be bent on considering, not how the Union may be pre- 10 
served, but how tolerable might be the condition of the 
people when it should be broken up and destroyed. While 
the Union lasts we have high, exciting, gratifying pros- 
pects spread out before us, for us and our children. Be- 
yond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant 15 
that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise ! God 
grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies 
behind ! When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the 
last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on 
the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious 20 
Union — on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; 
on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in 
fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble and lingering glance 
rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now 
known and honored throughout the earth, still full high 25 
advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original 
lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star ob- 
scured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interroga- 
tory as "What is all this worth?" nor those other words of 
delusion and folly, " Liberty first and Union afterward"; 30 
but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living 
light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the 
sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole 
heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true Ameri- 
can heart — Liberty and Union, now and forever, one 35 
and inseparable! 



76 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

DEMOCRACY 

By James Russell Lowell. (1884) 

Few people take the trouble of trying to find out what 
democracy really is. Yet this would be a great help, for 
it is our lawless and uncertain thoughts, it is the indefinite- 
ness of our impressions, that fill darkness, whether mental 
5 or physical, with specters and hobgoblins. Democracy 
is nothing more than an experiment in government, more 
likely to succeed in a new soil, but likely to be tried in all 
soils, which must stand or fall on its own merits as others 
have done before it. For there is no trick of perpetual 

io motion hi politics an}' more than in mechanics. 

There is more rough and tumble hi the American de- 
mocracy than is altogether agreeable to people of sensi- 
tive nerves and refined habits, and the people take their 
political duties lightly and laughingly, as is, perhaps, 

15 neither unnatural nor unbecoming in a young giant. 
Democracies can no more jump away from their own 
shadows than the rest of us can. They no doubt some- 
times make mistakes and pay honor to men who do not 
deserve it. But they do this because they believe them 

20 worthy of it, and though it be true that the idol is the 
measure of the worshipper, yet the worship has in it the 
germ of a nobler religion. 

I take it that the real essence of democracy was fairly 
enough defined by the First Xapoleon when he said that 

25 the French Revolution meant "la carriere ouverte aux 
talents" — a clear pathway for merit of whatever kind. 
I should be inclined to paraphrase this by calling de- 
mocracy that form of society, no matter what its political 
classification, in which every man had a chance and knew 

30 that he had it. If a man can climb, and feels himself 
encouraged to climb, from a coalpit to the highest position 
for which he is fitted, he can well afford to be indifferent 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PRGSE AND VERSE 11 

what name is given to the government under which he 
lives. 

All free governments, whatever their name, are in reality 
governments by public opinion, and it is on the quality 
of this public opinion that their prosperity depends. It 5 
is, therefore, their first duty to purify the element from 
which they draw the breath of life. With the growth of 
democracy grows also the fear, if not the danger, that this 
atmosphere may be corrupted with poisonous exhalations 
from lower and more malarious levels, and the question 10 
of sanitation becomes more instant and pressing. De- 
mocracy in its best sense is merely the letting in of light 
and air. 

We have been compelled to see what was weak in de- 
mocracy as well as what was strong. We have begun 15 
obscurely to recognize that things do not go of themselves, 
and that popular government is not in itself a panacea, is 
no better than any other form except as the virtue and 
wisdom of the people make it so, and that when men 
undertake to do their own kingship, they enter upon the 20 
dangers and responsibilities as well as the privileges of the 
function. Above all, it looks as if we were on the way 
to be persuaded that no government can be carried on 
by declamation. 

WORKING OF THE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 

By Charles W. Eliot. (June 28, 1888) 

An argument against democracy, which evidently had 25 
great weight with Sir Henry Maine, because he supposed 
it to rest upon the experience of mankind, is stated as 
follows : Progress and reformation have always been the 
work of the few, and have been opposed by the many ; 
therefore democracies will be obstructive. This argument 30 
is completely refuted by the first century of the American 



78 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

democracy, alike in the field of morals and jurisprudence, 
and in the field of manufactures and trade. Nowhere, for 
instance, has the great principle of religious toleration been 
so thoroughly put in practice as in the United States; 
5 nowhere have such well-meant and persistent efforts been 
made to improve the legal status of women; nowhere 
has the conduct of hospitals, asylums, reformatories and 
prisons been more carefully studied; nowhere have 
legislative remedies for acknowledged abuses and evils 

i o been more promptly and perseveringly sought. There 
was a certain plausibility in the idea that the multitude, 
who live by labor in established modes, would be opposed 
to inventions which would inevitably cause industrial 
revolutions, but American experience completely upsets 

1 5 this notion. For promptness, in making physical forces 
and machinery do the work of men, the people of the 
United States surpass incontestably all other peoples. 
The people that invented and introduced with perfect 
commercial success the river steamboat, the cotton-gin, 

20 the parlor-car and the sleeping car, the grain elevator, the 
street railway both surface and elevated, the telegraph, 
the telephone, the rapid printing-press, the cheap book 
and newspaper, the sewing-machine, the steam fire-engine, 
agricultural machinery, the pipe-lines for natural oil and 

25 gas, and machine-made clothing, boots, furniture, tools, 
screws, w T agons, fire-arms and watches, — this is not a 
people to vote down or hinder labor-saving invention or 
beneficent industrial revolution. The fact is that in a 
democracy the interests of the greater number will ul- 

3otimately prevail, as they should. It was the stage drivers 
and inn-keepers, not the multitude, who wished to sup- 
press the locomotive; it is the publishers and the typo- 
graphical unions, not the mass of the people, who wrongly 
imagine that they have an interest in making books dearer 

35 than they need be. Furthermore, a just liberty of com- 
bination and perfect equality before the law, such as pre- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 79 

vail in a democracy, enable men or companies to engage 
freely in new undertakings at their own risk and bring 
them to triumphant success, if success be in them, whether 
the multitude approve them or not. The consent of the 
multitude is not necessary to the success of a printing press 5 
which prints twenty thousand copies of a newspaper in 
an hour, or of a machine-cutter which cuts out twenty 
overcoats at one chop. In short, the notion that de- 
mocracy will hinder religious, political, and social refor- 
mation and progress, or restrain commercial and indus- 10 
trial improvement, is a chimera. 

FIVE AMERICAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO 
CIVILIZATION ° 

By Charles W. Eliot. (August 19, 1896) 

These five contributions to civilization — peacekeep- 
ing, religious toleration, the development of manhood 
suffrage, the welcoming of newcomers, and the diffusion 
of well-being — I hold to have been eminently charac-15 
teristic of our country, and so important that, in spite of 
the qualifications and deductions which every candid 
citizen would admit with regard to every one of them, 
they will ever be held in the grateful remembrance of 
mankind. They are reasonable grounds for a steady, 20 
glowing patriotism. They have had much to do, both as 
causes and as effects, with the material prosperity of the 
United States; but they are all five essentially moral 
contributions, being triumphs of reason, enterprise, 
courage, faith, and justice, over passion, selfishness, 25 
inertness, timidity, and distrust. Beneath each one of 
these developments there lies a strong ethical sentiment, 
a strenuous moral and social purpose. It is for such 
work that multitudinous democracies are fit. 

In regard to all five of these contributions, the charac- 30 



80 AMEBIC AN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

teristic policy of our country has been from time to time 
threatened with reversal — is even now so threatened. 
It is for true patriots to insist on the maintenance of these 
historic purposes and policies of the people of the United 
5 States. Our country's future perils, whether already 
visible or still unimagined, are to be met with courage 
and constancy founded firmly on these popular achieve- 
ments in the past. 

DEMOCRACY 
By Henry van Dyke. (October, 1905) 

In regard to this democratic method of electing rulers 

i o there are some things which I should like to say, with as 
much emphasis and clearness as may be consistent with 
brevity. 

It is the highest and most reasonable method. In the 
case of ignorant, undeveloped peoples, with whom the 

15 impulse of resistance is stronger than the instinct of order, 
the other methods may be necessary. But they are to be 
considered as educative, corrective, disciplinary. All 
peoples, like all children, should be regarded as on their 
way to self-rule. When they are able to maintain it, 

2 o they are entitled to have it. All arguments against the 
democratic method, based on the weakness, folly, and 
selfishness of human nature, apply with greater force to 
the autocratic and automatic methods. The individual 
follies of a multitude of men often neutralize one another, 

25 leaving an active residuum of plain common sense. But 
for a fool king there is no natural antidote ; and some- 
times men have sadly found that the only way to set his 
head straight was to remove it. 

It is said that democracies are peculiarly subject to 

30 the microbes of financial delusion and the resultant boom- 
fever and panic-chill. But the Mississippi Scheme and 
the South Sea Bubble flourished under monarchical in- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 81 

stitutions; and the worst-depreciated currencies in the 
world have been stamped with the image and super- 
scription of kings. . . . 

It is said that democracies sometimes choose weak, 
incompetent, and even bad men for their ruling classes. 5 
So they do. But they have no monopoly in this respect. 
The automatic method of selecting rulers produced 
Charles II and James II and George III. It would be 
difficult to surpass in any republic the folly which selected 
Lord North to guide the policy of Great Britain at a time 10 
when Lord Chatham, Charles James Fox, and Edmund 
Burke were on the stage. Yet this was done, not by an 
ignorant democracy but by an automatic King. Nor 
does the autocratic plan of allowing rulers to choose them- 
selves work any more infallibly. France had two ex- 1 5 
amples of it in the last century. Napoleon I was a catas- 
trophe. Napoleon III was a crime. 

All that may be said of the propriety of appealing to 
Providence and trusting God for the ordaining of the 
powers that be, applies to the democratic method even 20 
more than to any other. Why should we suppose that 
Providence has anything more to do with the ambition 
of a strong man to climb a throne, than with the desire of 
a great people to make a strong man their leader? Why 
should we imagine that God is any more willing to direct 25 
the intricacies of royal marriages, and regulate the matri- 
monial alliances of titled personages, for the sake of pro- 
ducing proper kings and lords, than to guide the thoughts 
and desires of a great people and turn their hearts to the 
choice of good presidents? The characteristic of de-30 
mocracy, says James Russell Lowell, is its habit of " asking 
the Powers that Be, at the most inconvenient moment, 
whether they are the Powers that Ought to Be." And 
what is this question but an appeal to the divine judgment 
and law? 35 

There is as much room for Providence to act in the 



82 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

growth of public opinion as in the rise and propagation 
of a royal house. What royal house is there that goes so 
far to vindicate the ways of God to man as the succession 
of Presidents chosen by the people of the American Re- 
5 public ? Some of the choices have not been brilliant, a 
few have been unfortunate, none has been evil or corrupt. 
There is no line of hereditary kings, no line of autocratic 
emperors that claims as many great men, or half as many 
good men, in an equal period of time, as the line of Presi- 

io dents of the United States. 

There is warrant, then, in reason and in experience, for 
believing in the divine right of democracy. It is not the 
only righteous and lawful method of selecting rulers, but 
it is the highest and most reasonable. We lift our pa- 

i 5 triotism above the shallow and flashy enthusiasm for 
institutions merely because they are ours. We confide 
ourselves to the hopeful and progressive view of human 
nature, to the faith that God is able to make truth and 
right reason prevail in the arena of public opinion. We 

20 bless the memory of our first and greatest hero because 
he had no desire for a crown, and so, by his personal in- 
fluence, helped to make the choice of ruling classes in the 
United States neither autocratic nor automatic, but demo- 
cratic. 

THE HOME AS A NATION BUILDER 
By Henry van Dyke. (October, 1905) 

2 5 The causes which control the development of national 
character are threefold : domestic, political, and religious ; 
the home, the state, and the church. 

The home comes first because it is the seed-plot and 
nursery of virtue. A noble nation of ignoble households 

30 is impossible. Our greatest peril to-day is in the decline 
of domestic morality, discipline, and piety. The degra- 
dation of the poor by overcrowding in great tenements, 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 83 

the enervation of the rich by seclusion in luxurious 
palaces, threaten the purity and vigor of the old-fashioned 
American family. If it vanishes, nothing can take its 
place. Show me a home where the tone of life is selfish, 
disorderly, or trivial, jaundiced by avarice, frivolized by s 
fashion, or poisoned by moral scepticism ; where success 
is worshiped and righteousness ignored; where there are 
two consciences, one for private and one for public use; 
where the boys are permitted to believe that religion has 
nothing to do with citizenship and that their object must 10 
be to get as much as possible from the state and to do as 
little as possible for it; where the girls are suffered to 
think that because they have no votes they have there- 
fore no duties to the commonwealth, and that the crown- 
ing glory of an American woman's life is to marry a is 
foreigner with a title — show me such a home, and I will 
show you a breeding-place of enemies of the Republic. 

To the hands of women the ordinance of nature has 
committed the trust of training men for their country's 
service. A great general like Napoleon may be produced 20 
in a military school. A great diplomatist like Metternich 
may be developed in a court. A great philosopher like 
Hegel may be evolved in a university. But a great man 
like Washington can come only from a pure and noble 
home. The greatness, indeed, parental love cannot be- 25 
stow ; but the manliness is often a mother's gift. Teach 
your sons to respect themselves without asserting them- 
selves. Teach them to think sound and wholesome 
thoughts, free from prejudice and passion. Teach them 
to speak the truth, even about their own party, and to pay 30 
their debts in the same money in which they were con- 
tracted, and to prefer poverty to dishonor. Teach them 
to worship God by doing some useful work, to live hon- 
estly and cheerfully in such a station as they are fit to 
fill, and to love their country with an unselfish and up- 35 
lifting love. Then they may not all be Washingtons, 



84 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

but they will be such men as will choose a Washington 
to be their ruler and leader in 

1 'The path of duty and the way to glory." 

And in the conflict between corporate capital and or- 
5 ganized labor, if come it must, they will stand fast as 
the soldiers, not of labor nor of capital, but of that which 
is infinitely above them both — the commonwealth of law 
and order and freedom. 



EDUCATION IN A REPUBLIC 
By Hexrt van Dyke. (October, 1905) 

A teacher should give his pupils rules in such a form 

i o that the}' can use them to work out their own problems. 
He should instruct them in languages so that words may 
serve to express clearly and accurately their own thoughts. 
He should teach them science in order that they may 
form habits of accurate observation, careful induction, 

15 and moderate statement of laws which are not yet fully 
understood. And if his instruction goes on to philosophy, 
history, literature, jurisprudence, government, his aim 
should be to give his pupils some standards by which they 
can estimate the works and ways, the promises and pro- 

20 posals of men to-day. Pupils thus educated will come 
out into the world prepared to take a real part in its life. 
They will be able to form an opinion without waiting for 
an editorial in their favorite newspaper. They will not 
need to borrow another man's spectacles before they can 

25 trust their eyes. 

"My mind to me a kingdom is," 

wrote the quaint old courtly poet, Sir Edward Dyer. 
But how many there are. in all classes of society, who 
have no right to use his words. Discrowned monarchs, 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 85 

exiled and landless, desolate and impotent, wearied with 
trivial cares and dull amusements, enslaved to masters 
whom they despise and tasks which promise much and 
pay little — what possession is there that they can call 
their own, what moment of time in which they are not at 5 
the beck and call of other men, either grinding stolidly at 
their round in the treadmill or dancing idiotically to the 
uncomprehended music of some stranger's pipe? We 
often say of one whom we wish to blame slightly and to 
half excuse, "He is only thoughtless." But there is no 10 
deeper word of censure and reproach in human speech, 
for it signifies one who has renounced a rightful dominion 
and despised a kingly diadem. 

The great dream of education as a loyalist of the de- 
mocracy is that "the king shall have his own again" — 15 
that no prince or princess of the blood royal of humanity 
shall be self -exiled in the desert of thoughtlessness or 
chained in the slavery of ignorance. A lofty dream, a 
distant dream, it may be, but the only way toward its 
fulfillment lies through the awakening of the reason. 20 
Not to leave the people in a dull servitude of groping 
instincts, while the chosen few look down on them from 
the cold heights of philosophy; but to diffuse through all 
the ranks of society an ever-increasing light of quiet, 
steady thought on the meaning and the laws of life — 25 
that is the democratic ideal. Slowly or swiftly we may 
work toward it, but only along that line will the people 
win their heritage and keep it: the power of self-rule, 
through self-knowledge, for the good of all. 



THE WILL TO FREEDOM AND DUTY 

By Henry van Dyke. (October, 1905) 

One more factor is included in the creative ideal of 30 
education, and that is its effect upon the will. The power 



86 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

to see clearly, to imagine vividly, to think independently, 
will certainly be wasted, will be shut up in the individual 
and kept for his own selfish delight, unless the power 
to will nobly comes to call the man into action and 
5 gives him, with all his education, to the service of the 
world. 

An educated man is helpless until he is emancipated. 
An emancipated man is aimless until he is consecrated. 
Consecration is simply concentration, -plus a sense of 

io duty. 

/" The final result of true education is not a selfish scholar, 
nor a scornful critic of the universe, but an intelligent 
and faithful citizen who is determined to put all his powers 
at the service of his country and mankind. 

15 What part are our colleges and universities to play in 
the realizing of this ideal of creative education ? Their 
true function is not exclusive, but inclusive. They are 
to hold this standard of manhood steadily before them, 
and recognize its supreme and universal value wherever 

2 o it is found. 

Some of the most thoughtful men in the country have 
not been college-bred. The university that assumes to 
look down on these men is false to its own ideal. It 
should honor them, and learn from them whatever they 

25 have to teach. College education is not to be separated 
from the educative work which pervades the whole social 
organism. What we need at present is not new colleges 
with a power of conferring degrees, but more power in the 
existing colleges to make men. To this end let them have 

30 a richer endowment, a fuller equipment, but, above all, 
a revival of the creative ideal. And let everything be 
done to bring together the high school, the normal school, 
the grammar school, the primary school, and the little- 
red-schoolhouse school, in the harmony of this ideal. 

35 The university shall still stand in the place of honor, if 
you will, but only because it bears the clearest and most 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 87 

steadfast witness that the end of education is to create 
men who can see clearly, imagine vividly, think steadily, 
and will nobly. 

TRUE AMERICANISM 
By Henry van Dyke. (September, 1906) 

Washington knew that the Boston maltster, and the 
Pennsylvania printer, and the Rhode Island anchor-smith, 5 
and the New Jersey preacher, and the New York lawyer, 
and the men who stood with him were Americans. 

He knew it, I say and by what divination? By a 
test more searching than any mere peculiarity of manners, 
dress, or speech ; by a touchstone able to divide the gold 10 
of essential character from the alloy of superficial char- 
acteristics ; by a standard which disregarded alike Frank- 
lin's fur cap and Putnam's old felt hat, Morgan's leather 
leggings and Witherspoon's black silk gown and John 
Adams's lace ruffles, to recognize and approve, beneath is 
these various garbs, the vital sign of America woven into 
the very souls of the men who belonged to her by a spiritual 
birthright. 

For what is true Americanism, and where does it reside ? 
Not on the tongue, nor in the clothes, nor among the 20 
transient social forms, refined or rude, which mottle the 
surface of human life. The log cabin has no monopoly 
of it, nor is it an immovable fixture of the stately pillared 
mansion. Its home is not on the frontier nor in the 
populous city, not among the trees of the wild forest nor 25 
the cultured groves of academe. Its dwelling is in the 
heart. It speaks a score of dialects but one language, 
follows a hundred paths to the same goal, performs a 
thousand kinds of service in loyalty to the same ideal 
which is its life. True Americanism is this : 30 

To believe that the inalienable rights of man to life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are given by God. 



88 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

To believe that any form of power that tramples on 
these rights is unjust. 

To believe that taxation without representation is tyranny, 
that government must rest upon the consent of the governed, 
5 and that the people should choose their own ruler. 

To believe not in a forced equality of conditions and 
estates, but in a true equalization of burdens, privileges, 
and opportunities. 

To believe that the selfish interests of persons, classes, 
ioand sections must be subordinated to the welfare of the 
commonwealth. 

To believe that union is as much a human necessity as 
liberty is a divine gift. 

To believe, not that all people are good, but that the 
15 way to make them better is to trust the whole people. 

To believe that a free state should offer an asylum to 
the oppressed, and an example of virtue, sobriety, and 
fair dealing to all nations. 

To believe that for the existence and perpetuity of such 
20 a state a man should be willing to give his whole service, in 
property, in labor, and in life. 

That is Americanism; an ideal embodying itself in a 
people; a creed heated white hot in the furnace of con- 
viction and hammered into shape on the anvil of life ; 
25 a vision commanding men to follow it whithersoever it 
may lead them. And it was the subordination of the 
personal self to that ideal, that creed, that vision, which 
gave eminence and glory to Washington and the men who 
stood with him. 

THE ARISTOCRACY OF SERVICE 

By Henry van Dyke. (September, 1906) 

30 We believe that the liberties which the heroes of old 
won with blood and sacrifice are ours to keep with labor 
and service. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 89 

"All that our fathers wrought 
With true prophetic thought, 
Must be defended." 

No privilege that encroaches upon those liberties is to be 
endured. No lawless disorder that imperils them is to 5 
be sanctioned. No class that disregards or invades them 
is to be tolerated. 

There is a life that is worth living now, as it was worth 
living in the former days, and that is the honest life, the 
useful life, the unselfish life, cleansed by devotion to an 10 
ideal. There is a battle that is worth fighting now, as it 
was worth fighting then, and that is the battle for justice 
and equality. To make our city and our State free in 
fact as well as in name ; to break the rings that strangle 
real liberty, and to keep them broken; to cleanse, so far 15 
as in our power lies, the fountains of our national life 
from political, commercial, and social corruption; to 
teach our sons and daughters, by precept and example, 
the honor of serving such a country as America — that 
is work worthy of the finest manhood and womanhood. 20 
The well born are those who are born to do that work. 
The well bred are those who are bred to be proud of that 
work. The well educated are those who see deepest into 
the meaning and the necessity of that work. Nor shall 
their labor be for naught, nor the reward of their sacrifice 25 
fail them. For high in the firmament of human destiny 
are set the stars of faith in mankind, and unselfish courage, 
and loyalty to the ideal ; and while they shine, the Ameri- 
canism of Washington and the men who stood with him 
shall never, never die. 30 

THE TYPICAL AMERICAN 

By Nicholas Murray Butler. (1908) 

The typical American is he who, whether rich or pooD, ol 
whether dwelling in the North, South, East, or Wesfr, 



90 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

whether scholar, professional man, merchant, manufac- 
turer, farmer, or skilled worker for wages, lives the life 
of a good citizen and a good neighbor ; who believes loyally 
and with all his heart in his country's institutions, and in 
5 the underlying principles on which these institutions are 
built ; who directs both his private and his public life by 
sound principles; who cherishes high ideals; and who 
aims to train his children for a useful life and for their 
country's service. 

GOOD CITIZENSHIP 

By Grover Cleveland. (1908) 

io Our country is infinitely more than a domain affording 
to those who dwell upon it immense material advantages 
and opportunities. In such a country we live. But I 
love to think of a glorious nation built upon the will of 
free men, set apart for the propagation and cultivation of 

i 5 humanity's best ideal of a free government, and made 
ready for the growth and fruitage of the highest aspira- 
tions of patriotism. This is the country that fives in us. 
I indulge in no mere figure of speech when I say that our 
nation, the immortal spirit of our domain, lives in us — 

20 in our hearts and minds and consciences. There it must 
find its nutriment or die. This thought more than any 
other presents to our minds the impressiveness and re- 
sponsibility of American citizenship. The land we live 
in seems to be strong and active. But how fares the land 

25 that lives in us? Are we sure that we are doing all we 
ought to keep it in vigor and health? Are we keeping 
its roots well surrounded by the fertile soil of loving 
allegiance, and are we furnishing them the invigorating 
moisture of unselfish fidelity? Are we as diligent as we 

3 o ought to be to protect this precious growth against the 
poison that must arise from the decay of harmony and 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 91 

honesty and industry and frugality ; and are we sufficiently 
watchful against the deadly, burrowing pests of consuming 
greed and cankerous cupidity? Our answers to these 
questions make up the account of our stewardship as 
keepers of a sacred trust. 5 

THE ATTITUDE OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN 
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 

By Charles Evans Hughes. ' (1910) 

The responsibilities of citizenship must not be regarded 
as limited to voting, to the use of electoral machinery, 
or to participation in political campaigns. Those are 
simply methods to secure the expression of public opinion 
which is the final authority. Opportunity and the re- io 
sponsibility which it measures, with respect to citizen- 
ship, are to be determined not merely by particular 
political rights, but by one's relation to the ultimate power 
which upholds or changes constitutions, makes laws, fixes 
the quality of administration and assures or prevents 15 
progress. . . . 

The responsibilities of citizenship, then, embrace all 
those acts or possible acts, all those habits or attitudes, 
which express the totality of one's possible contributions 
to the formation of public opinion and to the maintenance 20 
of proper standards of civic conduct. Power and re- 
sponsibility are to be judged not by the single vote, but 
by the indefinable influence radiating from personality, 
varying with moral perception, knowledge, acumen, ex- 
perience, and environment, and capable of being lessened 25 
or increased, as one shrinks his individuality or expands 
his life and throws his full weight as a growing man of 
noble purpose into the civic scale. . . . 

Progress is not a blessing conferred from without. It 
merely expresses the gains of individual efforts in coun- 30 



92 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

teracting the sinister and corrupting influences which, 
if successful, would make democratic institutions im- 
possible. Gratifying as is the vast extent and variety 
of our accomplishment, one cannot be insensible to the 
5 dangers to which we are exposed. No greater mistake 
can be made than to think that our institutions are fixed 
or may not be changed for the worse. We are a young 
nation and nothing can be taken for granted. If our 
institutions are maintained in their integrity, and if 

i o change shall mean improvement, it will be because the 
intelligent and the worthy constantly generate the motive 
power which, distributed over a thousand lines of com- 
munication, develops that appreciation of the standards 
of decency and justice which we have delighted to call the 

15 common sense of the American people. 

Increasing prosperity tends to breed indifference and 
to corrupt moral soundness. Glaring inequalities in 
condition create discontent and strain the democratic 
relation. The vicious are the willing, and the ignorant 

20 are the unconscious instruments of political artifice. 
Selfishness and demagoguery take advantage of liberty. 
The selfish hand constantly seeks to control government, 
and every increase of governmental power, even to meet 
just needs, furnishes opportunity for abuse and stimu- 

2 5lates the effort to bend it to improper uses. Free speech 
voices the appeals of hate and envy as well as those of 
justice and charity. A free press is made the instrument 
of cunning, greed, and ambition, as well as the agency 
of enlightened and independent opinion. How shall we 

30 preserve the supremacy of virtue and the soundness of 
the common judgment? How shall we buttress De- 
mocracy? The peril of this Nation is not in any foreign 
foe! We, the people, are its power, its peril, and its 
hope! . . . 

35 I do not refer to the conventional attitude commonly 
assumed in American utterances and always taken on 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 93 

patriotic occasions. I mean the sincere love of De- 
mocracy. . . . 

But a larger sympathy and appreciation are needed. 
The young man who goes out into life favorably disposed 
toward those who have had much the same environment 5 
and opportunity may still be lacking in the broader 
sympathy which should embrace all his fellow-country- 
men. He may be tolerant and democratic with respect 
to those who, despite differences in birth and fortune, he 
may regard as kindred spirits, and yet in his relation to 10 
men at large, to the great majority of his fellow beings, 
be little better than a snob. Or despite the camaraderie of 
college intercourse he may have developed a cynical dis- 
position or an intellectual aloofness which, while not 
marked enough to interfere with success in many voca- 1 5 
tions, or to disturb his conventional relations, largely 
disqualifies him from aiding his community as a public- 
spirited citizen. The primary object of education is to 
emancipate; to free from superstition, from the tyranny 
of worn-out notions, from the prejudices, large and small, 20 
which enslave the judgment. His study of history and 
of the institutions of his country has been to little purpose 
if the college man has not caught the vision of Democracy 
and has not been joined by the troth of heart and con- 
science to the great human brotherhood which is working 25 
out its destiny in this land of opportunity. 

The true citizen will endeavor to understand the differ- 
ent racial viewpoints of the various elements which enter 
into our population. He will seek to divest himself of 
antipathy or prejudice toward any of those who have 30 
come to us from foreign lands, and he will try, by happy 
illustration in his own conduct, to hasten appreciation of 
the American ideal. For him "American" will ever be 
a word of the spirit and not of the flesh. Difference in 
custom or religion will not be permitted to obscure the 35 
common human worth, nor will bigotry of creed or rela- 



94 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

tion prevent a just appraisement. The pitiful revela- 
tions of ignorance and squalor, of waste and folly, will not 
sap his faith. He will patiently seek truly to know him- 
self and others, and with fraternal insight to enter into 
5 the world's work, to share the joys of accomplishment, 
and to help in the bearing of the burdens of misery. He 
will be free from the prejudice of occupation or of resi- 
dence. He will not look askance either at city or at country. 
For him any honest work will be honorable, and those 

iowho are toiling with their hands will not be merely eco- 
nomic factors of work, but human beings of like passions 
and possessed of the " certain unalienable rights." Neither 
birth nor station, neither circumstance nor vocation, will 
win or prevent the esteem to which fidelity, honesty, and 

is sincerity are alone entitled. He will look neither up nor 
down, but with even eye will seek to read the hearts of 
men. ... 

The lover of democracy will have no desire to see the 
tyranny of despots replaced by the tyranny of a majority 

20 taking unto itself the conduct of individual life and the 
destruction of its hope. He knows that no community 
can be free if its members are deprived of liberty. But 
he also knows that he will utterly fail to find the sure basis 
for his liberty, under our social conditions, in his inde- 

25 pendent action, and that this foundation must be secured 
by intelligent cooperation. To save society from over- 
reaching and impoverishing itself by arbitrary interference 
and at the same time to uphold the public right as supreme, 
to secure the benefits of collective effort while wisely safe- 

30 guarding individual opportunity and initiative, is the 
patriotic and difficult task which should enlist the best 
thought and unselfish endeavor of every citizen who 
appreciates the advantages and the dangers of the Re- 
public. . . . 

35 The citizen should contribute something more than 
sympathy with democracy, something more than respect 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 95 

for individual and community interests, something more 
than adherence to the standards of fair dealing. Sym- 
pathy and sentiment will fail of practical effect without 
independence of character. A man owes it to himself so 
to conduct his life that it be recognized that his assent 5 
cannot be expected until he has been convinced. He 
should exhibit that spirit of self-reliance, that sense of 
individual responsibility in forming and stating opinion, 
which proclaims that he is a man and not a marionette. . . . 

The normal man naturally tends to work with others; 10 
to him the sentiment of loyalty makes a powerful appeal. 
And the counsel that is most needed is that men in the 
necessary action of groups should not lose their individual 
power for good by blind following. The man who would 
meet the responsibilities of citizenship must determine 1$ 
that he will endeavor justly, after availing himself of all 
the privileges which contact and study afford, to reach a 
conclusion which for him is a true conclusion, and that 
the action of his group shall if possible not be taken until, 
according to his opportunity and his range of influence, his 20 
point of view has been presented and considered. . . . 

The first lesson for a young man who faces the world 
with his career in his own hands is that he must be willing 
to do without. The question for him at the start and 
ever after must be not simply what he wants to get, but 25 
what he is willing to lose. " Whosoever shall lose his life 
shall preserve it," is the profoundest lesson of philosophy. 
No one can fight as a good soldier the battles of democracy 
who is constantly seeking cover. . . . 

Whether you like it or not, the majority will rule. 30 
Accept loyally the democratic principle. The voice of 
the majority is that neither of God nor of devil, but of 
men. Do not be abashed to be found with the minority, 
but on the other hand do not affect superiority or make the 
absurd mistake of thinking you are right or entitled to 35 
special credit merely because you do not agree with the 



96 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

common judgment. Your experience of life cannot fail 
to impress you with the soundness of that judgment in 
the long rim, and I believe you will come to put your 
trust, as I do, in the common sense of the people of this 
5 country, and in the verdicts they give after the discussions 
of press, of platform and of ordinary intercourse. The 
dangers of the overthrow of reason and of the reign of 
passion and prejudice become serious only as resentment 
is kindled by abuses for which those who have no sym- 

iopathy with popular government and constantly decry 
what they call "niob rule" are largely responsible. But 
whether the common judgment shall exhibit that intelli- 
gence and self-restraint which have given to our system 
of government so large a degree of success, will depend 

15 upon your attitude and that of the young men of the 
country who will determine the measure of capacity for 
self-government and progress in the coming years. 

Prize your birthright and let your attitude toward all 
public questions be characterized by such sincere demo- 

20 cratic sympathy, such enthusiasm for the common weal, 
such genuine love of justice, and such force of character, 
that your life to the full extent of your talent and oppor- 
tunity shall contribute to the reality, the security, and 
the beneficence of government by the people. 

THE SPIRIT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 

By Elihu Root. (1912) 

25 My friends, the noise and excitement of a great presiden- 
tial campaign is over ; the stress and strain, the over-state- 
ments, the warping of judgment by personal considerations 
and by old associations, have passed into memory, and we 
are all at rest; and during this period of rest, which in 

30 this active and vigorous and progressive country must be 
but short, it seems to be a good time for national intro- 
spection. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 97 

I have been thinking whether passing beyond and be- 
hind all the issues that we have been discussing, we can 
answer in the affirmative or the negative a crucial ques- 
tion, underlying them all, and that is this : Are we ad- 
vancing in our capacity for self-government ? Are we 5 
maintaining our capacity for self-government ? 

All the rest is unimportant compared with that. If we 
have the spirit of a true self-governing people, whichever 
way we decide the questions of the moment, we come 
through right. Whatever we do about the tariff, or about 10 
the trusts, or about the railroads, or about wages, or about 
corporations, or whatever we do about any of the issues 
before the American people, if we have at heart the true 
spirit of a free governing democracy, we come through 
right. What is it? What is the spirit of a free self- 15 
governing democracy? What are its essentials, and 
have we them to a greater or a less degree ? What is the 
tendency, is it up or down? 

Of course a people to be self-governing must have in- 
dependence of character and courage ; that we know we 20 
have. Throughout the length and breadth of our land 
the Americans have an attitude in which one recognizes 
no social or political superior, in which every man knows 
himself to be a man of equal manhood with all others and 
has the courage to speak his opinions and to maintain 25 
them ; and we thank God for that. 

But that is not enough; that is not all. All histories 
of wild and savage people, all the histories of lawless and 
undisciplined men, all the histories of civil wars and revo- 
lutions, all the histories of discord and strife which check the 30 
onward march of civilization and hold a people stationary 
until they go down instead of going up, admonish us that it 
is not enough to be independent and courageous. 

Self-governing people must have the spirit which makes 
them self-controlled, which makes every man competent 35 
and willing to govern his impulses by the rule of declared 



98 AMEBIC AN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

principle. And more than that, men in a self -governed 
democracy must have a love of liberty that means not 
merely one's own liberty but others' liberty. We must 
respect the opinions and the liberty of the opinions of our 

5 countrymen. That spirit excludes hatred of our op- 
ponents. That spirit excludes a desire to abuse, to villify, 
to destroy. All of us in foreign lands have felt the blood 
rush to the head, and felt the heart beat quicker, felt a 
suffusion of feeling upon seeing our country's flag floating 

ioin strange ports and in distant cities. That, my friends, 
is but a false sentiment, unless it carries with it a love not 
only for the flag but for the countrymen under the flag. 
True love of country is not an abstraction. It means a 
little different feeling toward every American because he 

15 is American. It means a desire that every American shall 
be prosperous; it means kindly consideration for his 
opinions, for his views, for his interests, for his prejudices, 
and charity for his follies and his errors. The man who 
loves his country only that he may be free does not love 

20 his country. He loves only himself and his own way 
and that is not self-government, but is the essence of 
despotism. 

Now as to that feeling I will not say that we have gone 
backward, but I will say, that there is serious cause for 

25 reflection on the part of all Americans. 

Our life has become so complicated, the activities of 
our country so numerous and so vast, that it is very 
difficult for us to understand what our countrymen are 
doing. The cotton planters understand each other, the 

30 wheat farmers understand each other, the importers 
understand each other, the bankers understand each 
other, but there are vast masses of the people of our 
country who totally misunderstand others of our people, 
and that misunderstanding is counter to the spirit which 

35 I have attempted to describe as so necessary to real self- 
government. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 99 

Misunderstanding! and when I say misunderstanding 
it implies erroneous ideas; for there are hundreds of 
thousands of people, outside the great industrial com- 
munities, who think you are a den of thieves, and there 
are hundreds of thousands of people who think that the 5 
manufacturers of the country are not better than a set 
of confidence men. Why, we have before us now great 
and serious questions regarding the financial problems of 
the country, and this is what stands in the way of their 
solution : It is that the men who understand the finances 10 
of the country, the bankers, and the merchants engaged 
in great operations, are under suspicion. Great bodies of 
people will not accept what they say regarding the subject 
of finance, a subject complicated by all the currents and 
movements of finance throughout the world; they will 15 
not accept what the experts say, what the men who under- 
stand the subject say, because they do not believe their 
motives are honest. So that the only one who can be 
heard is the man who does not understand the subject. 
How are we to reach any conclusion in that way? On 20 
the other hand, there are many in this room to-night who 
way down in their hearts believe that great bodies of the 
American people really want to destroy their business 
and confiscate their property, that they are enemies to 
the men who are carrying on the vast business essential 25 
to our prosperity. 

Now, neither is true. One misunderstanding leads to 
conduct which in some respects seems to justify another 
misunderstanding. Nobody in this country wants to 
destroy business, wants to destroy prosperity. I say 30 
nobody. Of course, there are always hangers-on in every 
country who would like to destroy everything in the 
hope of picking up the pieces. But speaking of the great 
body of the people, they do not want to destroy 
prosperity; and when they do things, when they vote 35 
for measures, when they elect representatives, leading 



100 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

you to think that they want to destroy prosperity, 
it is because they misunderstand you, and you mis- 
understand them. 

There is nothing more important to-day, than that, by 
s education and the spread of ideas, such misunderstanding 
shall be disposed of and done away with, and that all 
Americans shall come to the spirit of popular government 
in which every American desires the prosperity and the 
happiness of every other American, every American 

i o naturally feels a trust in all Americans, because they are 
all his brothers, fellow-inheritors of the great system of 
constitutional law for the preservation of liberty and 
justice, of the same great traditions, the same noble ideals 
of human freedom and human opportunity. 

15 There is one other essential to the spirit of self-govern- 
ment, and that is justice. The manufacturer, the em- 
ployer of labor, who is unwilling to be just to his work- 
ingmen is false to the ideals of his country. The laborer 
who, in the comparatively new found power of organi- 

-ozation, is unjust to his employer is false to those great 
traditions in which rests the liberty of all labor. 

The willingness to do justice in a nation to every brother 
of our common land is the ideal of self-government. 
Further than that, the willingness to do justice as a 

25 nation is the true conception of self-government. That 
rude and bumptious willingness to insult and deride, the 
result of ignorance, is wholly false to the true dignity and 
the true spirit of popular self-government. . . . 

The spirit of a people is everything, the decision of a 

30 particular question is nothing, if we are honest and honor- 
able. If we are lovers of liberty and justice, if we are 
willing to do, as a nation, what we feel bound to do as 
individuals in our communities, then all the questions 
we have been discussing will be solved right, and for count- 

35 less generations to come, Americans mil still be brothers, 
as they were in the days of old, leading the world toward 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 101 

happier lives and nobler manhood, toward the realization 
of the dreams of philosophers and the prophets, for a 
better and nobler world. 



THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO RULE 

By Theodore Roosevelt. (1912) 

I prefer to work with moderate, with rational, con- 
servatives, provided only that they do in good faith strive 5 
forward towards the light. But when they halt and turn 
their backs to the light, and sit with the scorners on the 
seats of reaction, then I must part company with them. 
We the people cannot turn back. Our aim must be 
steady, wise progress. It would be well if our people 10 
would study the history of a sister republic. All the woes 
of France for a century and a quarter have been due to 
the folly of her people in splitting into the two camps of 
unreasonable conservatism and unreasonable radicalism. 
Had pre-Revolutionary France listened to men like 1 5 
Turgot, and backed them up, all would have gone well. 
But the beneficiaries of privilege, the Bourbon reaction- 
aries, the short-sighted ultra-conservatives, turned down 
Turgot; and then found that instead of him they had 
obtained Robespierre. They gained twenty years' free- 20 
dom from all restraint and reform, at the cost of the whirl- 
wind of the red terror ; and in their turn the unbridled 
extremists of the terror induced a blind reaction ; and so, 
with convulsion and oscillation from one extreme to 
another, with alternations of violent radicalism and 25 
violent Bourbonism, the French people went through 
misery towards a shattered goal. May we profit by 
the experiences of our brother republicans across the 
water, and go forward steadily, avoiding all wild extremes ; 
and may our ultra-conservatives remember that the rule 30 
of the Bourbons brought on the Revolution, and may our 



102 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

would-be revolutionaries remember that no Bourbon was 
ever such a dangerous enemy of the people and of freedom 
as the professed friend of both, Robespierre. There is 
no danger of a revolution in this country; but there is 
5 grave discontent and unrest, and in order to remove them 
there is need of all the wisdom and probity and deep- 
seated faith in and purpose to uplift humanity, we have 
at our command. 

Friends, our task as Americans is to strive for social 

ioand industrial justice, achieved through the genuine rule 
of the people. This is our end, our purpose. The methods 
for achieving the end are merely expedients, to be finally 
accepted or rejected according as actual experience shows 
that they work well or ill. But in our hearts we must 

1 5 have this lofty purpose, and we must strive for it in all 
earnestness and sincerity, or our work will come to noth- 
ing. In order to succeed we need leaders of inspired 
idealism, leaders to whom are granted great visions, who 
dream greatly and strive to make their dreams come true ; 

2owho can kindle the people with the fire from their own 
burning souls. The leader for the time being, whoever 
he may be, is but an instrument, to be used until broken 
and then to be cast aside; and if he is worth his salt he 
will care no more when he is broken than a soldier cares 

25 when he is sent where his life is forfeit in order that the 
victory may be won. In the long fight for righteousness 
the watch-word for all of us is spend and be spent. It is 
of little matter whether any one man fails or succeeds; 
but the cause shall not fail, for it is the cause of mankind. 

30 We, here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the 
world, the fate of the coming years ; and shame and dis- 
grace will be ours if in our eyes the light of high resolve is 
dimmed, if we trail in the dust the golden hopes of men. 
If on this new continent we merely build another country 

35 of great but unjustly divided material prosperity, we shall 
have done nothing ; and we shall do as little if we merely 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 103 

set the greed of envy against the greed of arrogance, and 
thereby destroy the material well-being of all of us. To 
turn this Government either, into government by a plu- 
tocracy or government by a mob would be to repeat on a 
larger scale the lamentable failures of the world that is 5 
dead. We stand against all tyranny, by the few or by 
the many. We stand for the rule of the many in the 
interest of all of us, for the rule of the many in a spirit 
of courage, of common sense, of high purpose, above all 
in a spirit of kindly justice towards every man and every 10 
woman. We not merely admit, but insist, that there 
must be self-control on the part of the people, that they 
must keenly perceive their own duties as well as the rights 
of others ; but we also insist that the people can do noth- 
ing unless they not merely have, but exercise to the full 15 
their own rights. The worth of our great experiment 
depends upon its being in good faith an experiment — 
the first that has ever been tried — in true democracy on 
the scale of a continent, on a scale as vast as that of the 
mightiest empires of the Old World. Surely this is a 20 
noble ideal, an ideal for which it is worth while to strive, 
an ideal for which at need it is worth while to sacrifice 
much ; for our ideal is the rule of all the people in a spirit 
of friendliest brotherhood towards each and every one 
of the people. 25 

THE INTERNATIONAL MIND ° 

By Nicholas Murray Butler. (1912) 

The international mind is nothing else than that habit 
of thinking of foreign relations and business, and that 
habit of dealing with them, which regard the several 
nations of the civilized world as friendly and cooperating 
equals in aiding the progress of civilization, in develop- 30 
ing commerce and industry, and in spreading enlighten- 
ment and culture throughout the world. 



104 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

POLITICAL ROUTINEER AND INVENTOR 

By Walter Lippmann. (1913) 

For while statesmen are pottering along doing the same 
thing year in, year out, putting up the tariff one year and 
down the next, passing appropriation bills and recodifying 
laws, the real forces in the country do not stand still. 
5 Vast changes, economic and psychological, take place, 
and these changes demand new guidance. But the 
routineers are always unprepared. It has become one 
of the grim trade jokes of innovators that the one thing 
you can count upon is that the rulers will come to think 

i o that they are the apex of human development. For a 
queer effect of responsibility on men is that it makes them 
try to be as much like machines as possible. All govern- 
ment becomes rigid when it is too successful, and only 
defeat seems to give it new life. Success makes men 

1 5 rigid and they tend to exalt stability over all the other 
virtues ; tired of the effort of willing they become fanatics 
about conservatism. 

But conditions change whether statesmen wish them 
to or not ; society must have new institutions to fit new 

20 wants, and all that rigid conservatism can do is to make 
the transitions difficult. Violent revolutions may be 
charged up to the unreadiness of statesmen. It is because 
they will not see, or cannot see, that feudalism is dead, 
that chattel slavery is antiquated; it is because they 

2 5 have not the wisdom and the audacity to anticipate these 
great social changes; it is because they insist upon stand- 
ing pat that we have French Revolutions and Civil 
Wars. . . . 

We need a new sense of political values. These times 

30 require a different order of thinking. We cannot expect 
to meet our problems with a few inherited ideas, un- 
criticised assumptions, a foggy vocabulary, and a machine 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 105 

philosophy. Our political thinking needs the infusion 
of contemporary insights. The enormous vitality that 
is regenerating other interests can be brought into the 
service of politics. Our primary care must be to keep 
the habits of the mind flexible and adapted to the move- 5 
ment of real life. The only way to control our destiny 
is to work with it. In politics, at least, we stoop to con- 
quer. There is no use, no heroism, in' butting against the 
inevitable, yet nothing is entirely inevitable. There is 
always some opportunity for human direction. 10 

THE MEANING OF THE FLAG 

By Woodrow Wilson. (June, 1915) 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens : I know of nothing 
more difficult than to render an adequate tribute to the 
emblem of our nation. For those of us who have shared 
that nation's life and felt the beat of its pulse it must be 
considered a matter of impossibility to express the great 15 
things which that emblem embodies. I venture to say 
that a great many things are said about the flag which 
very few people stop to analyze. For me the flag does 
not express a mere body of vague sentiment. The flag 
of the United States has not been created by rhetorical 20 
sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of 
rights. It has been created by the experience of a great 
people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been 
written by their life. It is the embodiment, not of a 
sentiment, but of a history, and no man can rightly serve 25 
under that flag who has not caught some of the meaning 
of that history. 

Experience, ladies and gentlemen, is made by men and 
women. National experience is the product of those who 
do the living under that flag. It is their living that has 30 
created, its significance. You do not create the meaning 



106 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

of a national life by any literary exposition of it, but by 
the actual daily endeavors of a great people to do the tasks 
of the day and live up to the ideals of honesty and righteous- 
ness and just conduct. And as we think of these things, 
5 our tribute is to those men who have created this ex- 
perience. Many of them are known by name to all the 
world — statesmen, soldiers, merchants, masters of in- 
dustry, men of letters and of thought who have coined 
our hearts into action or into words. Of these men we 

iofeei that they have shown us the way. They have not 
been afraid to go before. They have known that they 
were speaking the thoughts of a great people when they 
led that great people along the paths of achievement. 
There was not a single swashbuckler among them. They 

15 were men of sober, quiet thought, the more effective be- 
cause there was no bluster in it. They were men who 
thought along the lines of duty, not along the lines of self- 
aggrandizement. They were men, in short, who thought 
of the people whom they served and not of themselves. 

20 But while we think of these men and do honor to them 
as to those who have shown us the way, let us not forget 
that the real experience and life of a nation lies with the 
great multitude of unknown men. It lies with those men 
whose names are never in the headlines of newspapers, 

25 those men who know the heat and pain and desperate loss 
of hope that sometimes comes in the great struggle of 
daily lif e ; not the men who stand on the side and com- 
ment, not the men who merely try to interpret the great 
struggle, but the men who are engaged in the struggle. 

30 They constitute the body of the nation. This flag is the 
essence of their daily endeavors. This flag does not ex- 
press any more than what they are and what they desire 
to be. 

As I think of the life of this great nation it seems to me 

35 that we sometimes look to the wrong places for its sources. 
We look to the noisy places, where men are talking in the 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 107 

market place ; we look to where men are expressing their 
individual opinions; we look to where partisans are ex- 
pressing passions ; instead of trying to attune our ears 
to that voiceless mass of men who merely go about their 
daily tasks, try to be honorable, try to serve the people 5 
they love, try to live worthy of the great communities to 
which they belong. These are the breath of the nation's 
nostrils ; these are the sinews of its might. 

How can any man presume to interpret the emblem of 
the United States, the emblem of what we would fain be 10 
among the family of nations, and find it incumbent upon 
us to be in the daily round of routine duty ? This is Flag 
Day, but that only means that it is a day when we are 
to recall the things which we should do every day of our 
lives. There are no days of special patriotism. There 15 
are no days when we should be more patriotic than on other 
days. We celebrate the Fourth of July merely because 
the great enterprise of liberty was started on the fourth 
of July in America, but the great enterprise of liberty was 
not begun in America. It is illustrated by the blood of 20 
thousands of martyrs who lived and died before the great 
experiment on this side of the water. The Fourth of 
July merely marks the day when we consecrated ourselves 
as a nation to this high thing which we pretend to serve. 
The benefit of a day like this is merely in turning away 25 
from the things that distract us, turning away from the 
things that touch us personally and absorb our interest 
in the hours of daily work. We remind ourselves of those 
things that are greater than we are, of those principles 
by which we believe our hearts to be elevated, of the more 30 
difficult things that we must undertake in these days of 
perplexity when a man's judgment is safest only when it 
follows the line of principle. 

I am solemnized in the presence of such a day. I would 
not undertake to speak your thoughts. You must inter- 35 
pret them for me. But I do feel that back, not only of 



108 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

every public official, but of every man and woman of the 
United States, there marches that great host which has 
brought us to the present day; the host that has never 
forgotten the vision which it saw at the birth of the nation ; 
5 the host which always responds to the dictates of hu- 
manity and of liberty ; the host that will always constitute 
the strength and the great body of friends of every man 
who does his duty to the United States. 

I am sorry that you do not wear a- little flag of the 
i o Union every day instead of some days. I can only ask 
you, if you lose the physical emblem, to be sure that you 
wear it in your heart, and the heart of America shall in- 
terpret the heart of the world. 



A LEAGUE TO ENFORCE PEACE 
By A. Lawrence Lowell. (September, 1915) 

In spite of its ominous sound, the suggestion of a league 

15 of nations to enforce peace has no connection with any 
effort to stop the present war. It is aimed solely at pre- 
venting future conflicts after the terrific struggle now 
raging has come to an end; and yet this is not a bad time 
for people in private life to bring forward proposals of 

20 such a nature. Owing to the vast number of soldiers under 
arms, to the proportion of men and women in the warring 
countries who suffer acutely, to the extent of the devas- 
tation and misery, it is probable that, whatever the result 
may be, the people of all nations will be more anxious to 

25 prevent the outbreak of another war than ever before 
in the history of the world. The time is not yet ripe for 
governments to take action, but it is ripe for public dis- 
cussion of practicable means to reduce the danger of future 
breaches of international peace. 

30 The nations of the world to-day are in much the position 
of frontier settlements in America half a century ago, 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 109 

before orderly government was set up. The men there 
were in the main well disposed, but in the absence of an 
authority that could enforce order each man, feeling no 
other security from attack, carried arms which he was 
prepared to use if danger threatened. The first step, 5 
when affrays became unbearable, was the formation of a 
vigilance committee, supported by the enrollment of all 
good citizens, to prevent men from shooting one another 
and to punish offenders. People did not wait for a gradual 
improvement by the preaching of higher ethics and a 10 
better civilization. They felt that violence must be met 
by force, and, when the show of force was strong enough, 
violence ceased. In time the vigilance committee was 
replaced by the policeman and by the sheriff with the 
posse comitatus. The policeman and the sheriff maintain 15 
order because they have the bulk of the community be- 
hind them, and no country has yet reached, or is likely 
for an indefinite period to reach, such a state of civiliza- 
tion that it can wholly dispense with the police. 

Treaties for the arbitration of international disputes are 20 
good. They have proved an effective method of settling 
questions that would otherwise have bred ill-feeling with- 
out directly causing war ; but when passion runs high and 
deep-rooted interests or sentiments are at stake, there is 
need of the sheriff with his posse to enforce the obligation. 25 
There are, no doubt, differences in the conception of 
justice and right, divergencies of civilization, so profound 
that people will fight over them, and face even the pros- 
pect of disaster in war rather than submit. Yet even in 
such cases it is worth while to postpone the conflict, to 30 
have a public discussion of the question at issue before an 
impartial tribunal, and thus give to the people of the 
countries involved a chance to consider, before hostilities 
begin, whether the risk and suffering of war is really 
worth while. No sensible man expects to abolish wars 35 
altogether, but we ought to seek to reduce the probability 



110 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

of war as much as possible. It is on these grounds that 
the suggestion has been put forth of a league of nations 
to enforce peace. 

Without attempting to cover details of operation, which 
5 are, indeed, of vital importance and will require careful 
study by experts in international law and diplomacy, the 
proposal contains four points stated as general objects. 
The first is that before resorting to arms the members of 
the league shall submit disputes with one another, if 

i o justiciable, to an international tribunal; second, that in 
like manner they shall submit non-justiciable questions 
(that is, such as cannot be decided on the basis of strict 
international law) to an international council of concilia- 
tion, which shall recommend a fair and amicable solution ; 

1 5 third, that if any member of the league wages war against 
another before submitting the question in dispute to the 
tribunal or council, all the other members shall jointly use 
forthwith both their economic and military forces against 
the state that so breaks the peace; and, fourth, that the 

20 signatory powers shall endeavor to codify and improve 
the rules of international law. 

The kernel of the proposal, the feature in which it differs 
from other plans, lies in the third point, obliging all the 
members of the league to declare war on any member 

2 5 violating the pact of peace. This is the provision that 
provokes both adherence and opposition; and at first it 
certainly gives one a shock that a people should be asked 
to pledge itself to go to war over a quarrel which is not of 
its making, in which it has no interest, and in which it may 

30 believe that substantial justice lies on the other side. If, 
indeed, the nations of the earth could maintain complete 
isolation, could pursue each its own destiny without re- 
gard to the rest, if they were not affected by a war between 
two others or liable to be drawn into it ; if, in short, there 

35 were no overwhelming common interest in securing uni- 
versal peace, the provision would be intolerable. It would 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM 12? PROSE AND VERSE 111 

be as bad as the liability of an individual to take part in 
the posse comitatus of a community with which he had 
nothing in common. But in every civilized country the 
public force is employed to prevent any man, however 
just his claim, from vindicating his own right with hiss 
own hand instead of going to law; and every citizen is 
bound, when needed, to assist in preventing him, because 
that is the only way to restrain private war, and the main- 
tenance of order is of paramount importance for every one. 
Surely the family of nations has a like interest in restrain- 10 
ing war between states. 

It will be observed that the members of the league are 
not to bind themselves to enforce the decision of the tri- 
bunal or the award of the council of conciliation. That 
may come in the remote future, but it is no part of this 1 5 
proposal. It would be imposing obligations far greater 
than the nations can reasonably be expected to assume at 
the present day; for the conceptions of international 
morality and fair play are still so vague and divergent 
that a nation can hardly bind itself to wage war on an- 20 
other, with which it has no quarrel, to enforce a decision 
or a recommendation of whose justice or wisdom it may 
not be itself heartily convinced. The proposal goes no 
farther than obliging all the members to prevent by threat 
of armed intervention a breach of the public peace before 25 
the matter in dispute has been submitted to arbitration, 
and this is neither unreasonable nor impracticable. There 
are many questions, especially of a non- justiciable nature, 
on which we should not be willing to bind ourselves to 
accept the decision of an arbitration, and where we should 30 
regard compulsion by armed intervention of the rest of 
the world as outrageous. Take, for example, the question 
of Asiatic immigration, or a claim that the Panama Canal 
ought to be an unfortified neutral highway, or the desire 
by a European power to take possession of Colombia. 35 
But we ought not, in the interest of universal peace, to 



112 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM W PROSE AND VERSE 

object to making a public statement of our position in an 
international court or council before resorting to arms; 
and m fact the treaty between the United States and 
Great Britain, ratified on November 14, 1914, provides 
5 that all disputes between the high contracting parties, 
of every nature whatsoever, shall, failing other methods 
of adjustment, be referred for investigation and report to 
a Permanent International Commission with a stipulation 
that neither country shall declare war or begin hostilities 

i o during such investigation and before the report is sub- 
mitted. 

What is true of this country is true of others. To agree 
to abide by the result of an arbitration, on every non- 
justiciable question of every nature whatsoever, on pain 

1 5 of compulsion in any form by the whole world, would in- 
volve a greater cession of sovereignty than nations would 
now be willing to concede. This appears, indeed, per- 
fectty clearly from the discussions at the Hague Con- 
ference of 1907. But to exclude differences that do not 

20 turn on questions of international law from the cases 
where a state must present the matter to a tribunal or 
council of conciliation before beginning hostilities, would 
leave very little check upon the outbreak of war. Almost 
every conflict between European nations for more than 

2 5 hah a century has been based upon some dissension which 
could not be decided by strict rules of law, and in which 
a violation of international law or of treaty rights has 
usually not even been used as an excuse. This was true 
of the war of France and Sardinia against Austria in 1859, 

30 and in substance of the war between Prussia and Austria 
in 1866. It was true of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, 
of the Russo-Turkish War in 1876, of the Balkan War 
against Turkey in 1912, and of the present war. 

No one will claim that a league to enforce peace, such 

35 as is proposed, would wholly prevent war, but it would 
greatly reduce the probability of hostilities. It would 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 113 

take away the advantage of surprise, of catching the enemy 
unprepared for a sudden attack. It would give a chance 
for public opinion on the nature of the controversy to be 
formed throughout the world and in the militant country. 
The latter is of great importance, for the moment war is 5 
declared argument about its merits is at once stifled. 
Passion runs too high for calm debate, and patriotism 
forces people to support their government. But a trial 
before an international tribunal would give time for dis- 
cussion while emotion is not yet highly inflamed. Men 10 
opposed to war would be able to urge its injustice, to ask 
whether, after all, the object is worth the sacrifice, and 
they would get a hearing from their fellow citizens which 
they cannot get after war begins. The mere delay, the 
interval for consideration, would be an immense gain, for 15 
the prospect of a peaceful settlement. . . . 

The proposal for a league to enforce peace cannot meet 
all possible contingencies. It cannot prevent all future 
wars, nor does any sensible person believe that any plan 
can do so in the present state of civilization. But it can 20 
prevent some wars that would otherwise take place, and, 
if it does that, it will have done much good. 

People have asked how such a league would differ from 
the Triple Alliance or Triple Entente, whether it would not 
be nominally a combination for peace which might have 25 
quite a different effect. But in fact its object is quite con- 
trary to those alliances. They are designed to protect 
their members against outside powers. This is intended 
to insure peace among the members themselves. If it 
grew strong enough, by including all the great powers, 30 
it might well insist on universal peace by compelling the 
outsiders to come in. But that is not its primary object, 
which is simply to prevent members from going to war 
with one another. No doubt if several great nations, and 
some of the smaller ones, joined it, and if it succeeded in 35 
preserving constant friendly relations among its members, 



114 AMEBIC AN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

there would grow up among them a sense of solidarity, 
which would make any outside power chary of attacking 
one of them; and, what is more valuable, would make 
outsiders want to join it. But there is little use in specu- 
slating about probabilities. It is enough if such a league 
were a source of enduring peace among its own members. 
How about our own position in the United States? 
The proposal is a radical and subversive departure from 
the traditional policy of our country. Would it be wise 

10 for us to be parties to such an agreement ? At the thresh- 
old of such a discussion one thing is clear. If we are not 
willing to urge our own government to join a movement 
for peace, we have no business to discuss any plan for the 
purpose. It is worse than futile, it is an impertinence, for 

i s Americans to advise the people of Europe how they ought 
to conduct their affairs if we have nothing in common with 
them, to suggest to them conventions with burdens 
which are well enough for them, but which we are not 
willing to share. If our peace organizations are not 

20 prepared to have us take part in the plans they devise, 
they had better disband, or confine their discussions to 
Pan-American questions. 

To return to the question; would it be wise for the 
United States to make so great a departure from its tra- 

2sditional policy? The wisdom of consistency lies in 
adherence to a principle so long as the conditions upon 
which it is based remain unchanged. But the conditions 
that affect the relation of America to Europe have changed 
greatly in the last hundred and twenty years. At that 

30 time it took about a month to cross the ocean to our shores. 
Ships were small and could carry few troops. Their guns 
had a short range. No country had what would now be 
called more than a very small army ; and it was virtually 
impossible for any foreign nation to make more than a 

35 raid upon our territory before we could organize and 
equip a sufficient force to resist, however unprepared we 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 115 

might be at the outset. But now, by the improvements 
in machinery, the Atlantic has shrunk to a lake, and be- 
fore long will shrink to a river. Except for the protec- 
tion of the navy, and perhaps in spite of it, a foreign 
nation could land on our coast an army of such a size, 5 
and armed with such weapons, that unless we maintain 
troops several times larger than our present forces, we 
should be quite unable to oppose them before we had 
suffered incalculable damage. 

It is all very well to assert that we have no desire to quar- 10 
rel with any one, or any one with us ; but good intentions 
in the abstract, even if accompanied by long-suffering and 
a disposition to overlook affronts, will not always keep us 
out of strife. When a number of great nations are locked 
in a death grapple they are a trifle careless of the rights of 1 5 
the bystander. Within fifteen years of Washington's 
Farewell Address we were drawn into the wars of Na- 
poleon, and a sorry figure we made for the most part of 
the fighting on land. A hundred years later our relations 
with the rest of the world are far closer, our ability to 20 
maintain a complete isolation far less. Except by colossal 
self-deception we cannot believe that the convulsions of 
Europe do not affect us profoundly, that wars there need 
not disturb us, that we are not in danger of being drawn 
into them; or even that we may not some day find our- 25 
selves in the direct path of the storm. If our interest in 
the maintenance of peace is not quite so strong as that of 
some other nations, it is certainly strong enough to warrant 
our taking steps to preserve it, even to the point of joining 
a league to enforce it. The cost of the insurance is well 30 
worth the security to us. 

If mere material self-interest would indicate such a 
course, there are other reasons to confirm it. Civiliza- 
tion is to some extent a common heritage which it is worth 
while for all nations to defend, and war is a scourge which 35 
all peoples should use every rational means to reduce. If 



116 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

the family of nations can by standing together make wars 
less frequent , it is clearly their duty to do so, and in such 
a body we do not want the place of our own country to 
be vacant. 
5 To join such a league would mean, no doubt, a larger 
force of men trained for arms in this country, more muni- 
tions of war on hand, and better means of producing them 
rapidly ; for although it may be assumed that the members 
of the league would never be actually called upon to carry 

ioout their promise to fight, they ought to have a potential 
force for the purpose. But in any case this country ought 
not to be so little prepared for an emergency as it is to-day, 
and it would require to be less fully armed if it joined a 
league pledged to protect its members against attack, 

15 than if it stood alone and unprotected. In fact the tend- 
ency of such a league, by procuring at least delay before 
the outbreak of hostilities, would be to lessen the need of 
preparation for immediate war, and thus have a more 
potent effect in reducing armaments than any formal 

20 treaties, whether made voluntarily or under compulsion. 

The proposal for a league to enforce peace does not 

conflict with plans to go farther, to enforce justice among 

nations by compelling compliance with the decisions of a 

tribunal by diplomatic, economic or military pressure. 

25 Nor, on the other hand, does it imply any such action, 
or interfere with the independence or sovereignty of states 
except in this one respect, that it would prohibit any mem- 
ber, before submitting its claims to arbitration, from mak- 
ing war upon another on pain of finding itself at war with 

30 all the rest. The proposal is only a suggestion, defective 
probably, crude certainTy, but if, in spite of that, it is the 
most promising plan for maintaining peace now brought 
forward, it merits sympathetic consideration both here 
and abroad. 






AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 117 

PATRIOTISM ° 

By Nicholas Murray Butler. (1915) ■ 

Perhaps you have not all reflected upon what this 
thing called patriotism is and how recently it has come 
into the history of man. There was nothing correspond- 
ing to what we mean by patriotism in the older world. 
There was loyalty to race ; there was something approach- 5 
ing patriotism, perhaps, in the life of the Greek or Roman 
city ; there was loyalty to ruling monarchs or dynasties ; 
there was pride of origin or opinion; but so long as the 
nations of Europe and America were in the making, so 
long as life was fluid, and men were moving uneasily and 10 
rapidly over the face of the earth, without fixed habitat 
or permanent institutions, there was nothing correspond- 
ing to what we know as patriotism. Nor is patriotism 
compatible with any ambition for world-empire or domin- 
ion. So long as there was hope of bringing the whole world 1 5 
under the dominion of a single form of religion or under the 
control of a single governing power — so long as those 
dreams flitted before the eyes and minds of men — there 
was nothing corresponding to what we know as patriotism. 

Patriotism began to rise when the modern nations took 20 
on their form ; when each group of men found itself in a 
separate and substantially fixed habitat; when unity of 
language began to develop; when literature sprang up 
on the wings of language ; when institutions and achieve- 
ments began to appear and to organize themselves; and 25 
when men began to convene and to feel the need of a social 
and political life that had an end or a purpose of its own 
which they could understand and teach to their children. 
When there was something that could be handed down, 
some theory of life, some theory of the status which each 30 
man bears to his fellow, then there began to emerge the 
materials out of which patriotism is made. . . . 



118 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

A patriot is a man who stands to his country in the re- 
lation of a father to his child. He loves it; he cares for 
it; he makes sacrifices for it; he fights for it; he serves 
it ; he tries to shape its course of thought and action, that 
5 it may most perfectly adhere to its purpose and its ideal. . . . 
There is no necessary conflict in the mind of the wise, 
well-instructed patriot, between the cause and purpose 
and aim of his nation and the cause and purpose and aim 
of the whole great group and family of nations. A patriot 

iois not a termagant; he is not a destroyer of the peace; 
he is not one who treats with contempt or dislike his 
fellow who speaks another tongue or who owes allegiance 
to another flag or who loves another literature; but he is 
one who understands and appreciates how these various 

15 aspects of civilized life can better serve the common pur- 
pose by better serving each its own. . . . 

Instead of rhetoric, a patriot needs philosophy ; instead 
of noisy and tumultuous expression of high feeling, he 
needs serious purpose, insight into the significance of his 

20 own country, a knowledge of its history, of its great 
personalities, of its policies, of its achievements, and 
above all, a knowledge of its aim. He must ask himself 
not only, "From what origin and by what steps has it 
come?" but more insistently and more emphatically, 

25 "Toward what end and toward what purpose is it moving? 
What is the reason of it all?" . . . 

This country is, in a peculiar sense, the keeper of the 
conscience of democracy. There may be nations — we 
know there are nations of the first rank — not committed 

30 as we are to the democratic principle. We need find no 
fault with them for preferring, temporarily at least, some 
other form of social and political organization; but we 
must bear in mind that we are the keepers of the demo- 
cratic conscience of the world. We are the keepers of the 

35 open door of opportunity in democracy; and we are the 
keepers of the great principle of federation as a means 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 119 

of securing domestic freedom and national unity, and of 
permitting liberty under law in ways with which we have 
now been familiar for nearly a century and a half. . . . 

The American patriot, keeping his heart open and his 
mind free from prejudice, seeking friendships everywhere 5 
in this world and enmities nowhere, keeping his eye fixed 
on this line between government and liberty, will ask him- 
self how, as one of the keepers of the democratic conscience, 
can he act in a given crisis, in the presence of a given prob- 
lem, before a given issue — how can he act, my friends, so 10 
as to protect the aim and the ideals of the American 
Republic ? 

He is a poor American who is without a passionate love 
of home; who does not feel a peculiar drawing at the 
heart and a choking of the voice when his mind goes back 15 
in after-years to the home where his first associations 
were made, where his father and mother lived, where his 
childhood friends and associates, his schoolteachers and 
schoolmates dwelt, where he got his first outlook on life 
and began to stretch his wings and try to fly. No tempo- 20 
rary abiding-place, no working-place or office or house can 
ever be substituted for the home in the heart of the true 
patriot. Just so the patriot's feeling for his fatherland 
or motherland is the feeling he has for the nation to which 
he belongs, the ideal to which he owes allegiance, the 25 
language he speaks, the literature he loves, and the law 
that determines the patriot's relation to all of these — 
his intelligence, reflections, and emotions — the relation 
of the individual to his larger home. . . . 



AMERICANISM ° 

By Theodore Roosevelt. (1915) 

We of the United States need above all things to re- 30 
member that, while we are by blood and culture kin to 



120 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

each of the nations of Europe, we are also separate from 
each of them. We are a new and distinct nationality. 
We are developing our own distinctive culture and civiliza- 
tion, and the worth of this civilization will largely depend 
5 upon our determination to keep it distinctively our own. 
Our sons and daughters should be educated here and not 
abroad. We should freely take from every other nation 
whatever we can make of use, but we should adopt and 
develop to our own peculiar needs what we thus take, 

10 and never be content merely to copy. 

Our nation was founded to perpetuate democratic 
principles. These principles are that each is to be treated 
on his worth as a man without regard to the land from 
which Ms forefathers came and without regard to the 

15 creed which he professes. If the United States proves 
false to these principles of civil and religious liberty, it 
will have inflicted the greatest blow on the system of free 
popular government that has ever been inflicted. Here 
we have had a virgin continent on which to try the ex- 

20 periment of making out of divers race stocks a new nation 
and of treating all the citizens of that nation in such a 
fashion as to preserve them equality of opportunity in 
industrial, civil and political life. Our duty is to secure 
each man against any injustice by his fellows. 

25 One of the most important things to secure for him is 
the right to hold and to express the religious views that 
best meet his own soul needs. Any political movement 
directed against any body of our fellow citizens because 
of their religious creed is a grave offense against American 

30 principles and American institutions. It is a wicked 
thing either to support or to oppose a man because of the 
creed he professes. This applies to Jew and Gentile, to 
Catholic and Protestant, and to the man who would be 
regarded as unorthodox by all of them alike. Political. 

35 movements directed against certain men because of their 
religious belief, and intended to prevent men of that creed 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 121 

from holding office, have never accomplished anything * 
but harm. This was true in the days of the "Know- 
Nothing" and Native- American parties in the middle of 
the last century ; and it is just as true to-day. Such a 
movement directly contravenes the spirit of the Con- 5 
stitution itself. Washington and his associates believed 
that it was essential to the existence of this Republic that 
there should never be any union of Church and State; 
and such union is partially accomplished wherever a given 
creed is aided by the State or when any public servant is 10 
elected or defeated because of his creed. The Consti- 
tution explicitly forbids the requiring of any religious test 
as a qualification for holding office. To impose such a 
test by popular vote is as bad as to impose it by law. To 
vote either for or against a man because of his creed is to 15 
impose upon him a religious test and is a clear violation of 
the spirit of the Constitution. 



We must recognize that it is a cardinal sin against 
democracy to support a man for public office because he 
belongs to a given creed or to oppose him because he be- 20 
longs to a given creed. It is just as evil as to draw the 
line between class and class, between occupation and 
occupation in political life. No man who tries to draw 
either line is a good American. True Americanism de- 
mands that we judge each man on his conduct, that we so 25 
judge him in private life and that we so judge him in 
public life. . . . 

I hold that in this country there must be complete 
severance of Church and State ; that public moneys shall 
not be used for the purpose of advancing any particular 30 
creed ; and therefore that the public schools shall be non- 
sectarian and no public moneys appropriated for sec- 
tarian schools. As a necessary corollary to this, not only 
the pupils but the members of the teaching force and the 



122 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IK PROSE AND VERSE 

school officials of all kinds must be treated exactly on a 
par, no matter what their creed; and there must be no 
more discrimination against Jew or Catholic or Protestant 
than discrimination in favor of Jew, Catholic or Protest- 
5 ant. Whoever makes such discrimination is an enemy 
of the public schools. 

What is true of creed is no less true of nationality. 
There is no room in this country for hyphenated Ameri- 
cans ; I do not refer to naturalized Americans, Americans 

i o born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an 
American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts 
" native M before the hyphen as of the man who puts 
German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. 
Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. 

is Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We 
must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other 
allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this 
Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just 
as good an American as any one else. 

20 The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation 
to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be 
a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle 
of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German- 
Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French- 

25 Americans, Scandinavian- Americans or Italian-Americans, 
each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart 
feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality 
than with the other citizens of the American Republic. 
The men who do not become Americans and nothing else 

30 are hyphenated Americans, and there ought to be no 
room for them in this country. The man who calls him- 
self an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions 
that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a 
thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body poli- 

35 tic. He has no place here, and the sooner he returns 
to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 123 

better it will be for every good American. The only man 
who is a good American is the man who is an American 
and nothing else. . . . 

For an American citizen to vote as a German- American, 
an Irish- American or an English- American is to be as 
traitor to American institutions; and those hyphenated 
Americans who terrorize American politicians by threats 
of the foreign vote are engaged in treason to the American 
Republic. 

Now this is a declaration of principles. How are we in 10 
practical fashion to secure the making of these principles 
part of the very fiber of our national life? First and 
foremost let us all resolve that in this country hereafter we 
shall place far less emphasis upon the question of right 
and much greater emphasis upon the matter of duty. A is 
republic can't succeed and won't succeed in the tremendous 
international stress of the modern world unless its citizens 
possess that form of high-minded patriotism which con- 
sists in putting devotion to duty before the question of 
individual rights. ... 20 

It was recently announced that the Russian govern- 
ment was to rent a house in New York as a national center, 
to be Russian in faith and patriotism, to foster the Rus- 
sian language and keep alive the national feeling in im- 
migrants who come hither. Had this been done, it would 25 
have been utterly antagonistic to proper American senti- 
ment, whether perpetrated in the name of Germany, of 
Austria, of Russia, of England, or France or any other 
country. . . . 

The foreign-born population of this country must be an 30 
Americanized population — no other kind can fight the 
battles of America either in war or peace. It must talk 
the language of its native-born fellow citizens, it must 
possess American citizenship and American ideals — and 
therefore we native-born citizens must ourselves practice 35, 
a high and fine idealism, and shun as we would the plague 



124 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

the sordid materialism, which treats pecuniary profit and 
gross bodily comfort as the only evidences of success. 
It must stand firm by its oath of allegiance in word and 
deed and must show that in very fact it has renounced 
5 allegiance to every prince, potentate or foreign govern- 
ment. It must be maintained on an American standard 
of living so as to prevent labor disturbances in important 
plants and at critical times. None of these objects can 
be secured as long as we have immigrant colonies, ghettos, 

ioand immigrant sections, and above all they cannot be 
assured so long as we consider the immigrant only as an 
industrial asset. The immigrant must not be allowed 
to drift or to be put at the mercy of the exploiter. Our 
object is not to imitate one of the older racial types, but 

1 5 to maintain a new American type and then to secure 
loyalty to this type. We cannot secure such loyalty un- 
less we make this a country where men shall feel that they 
have justice and also where they shall feel that they are 
required to perform the duties imposed upon them. The 

2 o policy of "Let alone" which we have hitherto pursued is 
thoroughly vicious from two standpoints. By this policy 
we have permitted the immigrants, and too often the 
native-born laborers as well, to suffer injustice. More- 
over, by this policy we have failed to impress upon the 

25 immigrant and upon the native-born as well that they are 
expected to do justice as well as to receive justice, that 
they are expected to be heartily and actively and single- 
mindedly loyal to the flag no less than to benefit by living 
under it. 

30 We cannot afford to continue to use hundreds of thou- 
sands of immigrants merely as industrial assets while 
they remain social outcasts and menaces any more than 
fifty years ago we could afford to keep the black man 
merely as an industrial asset and not as a human being. 

35 We cannot afford to build a big industrial plant and herd 
men and women about it without care for their welfare. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 125 

We cannot afford to permit squalid overcrowding or the 
kind of living system which makes impossible the decen- 
cies and necessities of life. . . . 

All of us, no matter from what land our parents came, 
no matter in what way we may severally worship ours 
Creator, must stand shoulder to shoulder in a united 
America for the elimination of race and religious prejudice. 
We must stand for a reign of equal justice to both big and 
small. We must insist on the maintenance of the Ameri- 
can standard of living. We must stand for an adequate 10 
national control which shall secure a better training of 
our young men in time of peace, both for the work of peace 
and for the work of war. We must direct every national 
resource, material and spiritual, to the task not of shirking 
difficulties, but of training our people to overcome diffi- 1 5 
culties. Our aim must be, not to make life easy and soft, 
not to soften soul and body, but to fit us in virile fashion 
to do a great work for all mankind. This great work can 
only be done by a mighty democracy, with those qualities 
of soul, guided by those qualities of mind, which will 20 
both make it refuse to do injustice to any other nation, 
and also enable it to hold its own against aggression by 
any other nation. In our relations with the outside world, 
we must abhor wrongdoing, and disdain to commit it, and 
we must no less disdain the baseness of spirit which 25 
tamely submits to wrongdoing. Finally and most im- 
portant of all, we must strive for the establishment within 
our own borders of that stern and lofty standard of personal 
and public morality which shall guarantee to each man 
his rights, and which shall insist in return upon the full 30 
performance by each man of his duties both to his neigh- 
bor and to the great nation whose flag must symbolize in 
the future, as it has symbolized in the past, the highest 
hopes of all mankind. 



126 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSfi AND VERSE 

PAN-AMERICANISM ° 

By Robert Lansing. (December 27, 1915) 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Congress: 

It is an especial gratification to me to address you to-day, 
not only as the officer of the United States who invited 
you to attend this great Scientific Congress of the Amer- 
ican Republics, but also as the presiding member of the 
5 Governing Board of the Pan-American Union. In this 
dual capacity I have the honor and the pleasure to wel- 
come you, gentlemen, to the capital of this country, in 
the full confidence that your deliberations will be of mu- 
tual benefit in your various spheres of thought and re- 

io search, and not only in your individual spheres but in the 
all-embracing sphere of Pan-American unity and frater- 
nity which is so near to the hearts of us all. 

It is the Pan-American spirit and the policy of Pan- 
Americanism to which I would for a few moments direct 

15 your attention at this early meeting of the Congress, since 
it is my earnest hope that " Pan- America " will be the key- 
note which will influence your relations with one another 
and inspire your thoughts and words. 

Nearly a century has passed since President Monroe 

20 proclaimed to the world his famous doctrine as the national 
policy of the United States. It was founded on the prin- 
ciple that the safety of this Republic would be imperiled 
by the extension of sovereign rights by a European power 
over territory in this hemisphere. Conceived in a sus- 

2 5picion of monarchical institutions and in a full sympathy 
with the republican idea, it was uttered at a time when 
our neighbors to the south had won their independence 
and were gradually adapting themselves to the exercise 
of their newly acquired rights. To those struggling 

30 nations the doctrine became a shield against the great 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 127 

European powers, which in the spirit of the age coveted 
political control over the rich regions which the new-born 
States had made their own. 

The United States was then a small nation, but a nation 
which had been tried in the fire ; a nation whose indom- 5 
itable will had remained unshaken by the dangers through 
which it had passed. The announcement of the Monroe 
Doctrine was a manifestation of this will. It was a 
courageous thing for President Monroe to do. It meant 
much in those early days, not only to this country but 10 
to those nations which were commencing a new life 
under the standard of liberty. How much it meant 
we can never know, since for four decades it remained 
unchallenged. 

During that period the younger Republics of America, 15 
giving expression to the virile spirit born of independence 
and liberal institutions, developed rapidly and set tVeir feet 
firmly on the path of national progress which lias led 
them to that plane of intellectual and material prosperity 
which they to-day enjoy. 20 

Within recent years the Government of the United 
States has found no occasion, with the exception of the 
Venezuela boundary incident, to remind Europe that the 
Monroe Doctrine continues unaltered a national policy 
of this Republic. The Republics of America are no 25 
longer children in the great family of nations. They have 
attained maturity. With enterprise and patriotic fervor 
they are working out their several destinies. 

During this later time, when the American nations have 
come into a realization of their nationality and are fully 30 
conscious of the responsibilities and privileges which are 
theirs as sovereign and independent States, there has 
grown up a feeling that the Republics of this hemisphere 
constitute a group separate and apart from the other 
nations of the world, a group which is united by common 35 
ideals and common aspirations. I believe that this feel- 



128 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

ing is general throughout North and South America, and 
that year by year it has increased until it has become a 
potent influence over our political and commercial inter- 
course. It is the same feeling which, founded on sympa- 
5 thy and mutual interest, exists among the members of a 
family. It is the tie which draws together the twenty- 
one Republics and makes of them the American Family 
of Nations. 

This feeling, vague at first, has become to-day a definite 

10 and certain force. We term it the " Pan-American spirit/ ' 
from which springs the international policy of Pan-Ameri- 
canism. It is that policy which is responsible for this great 
gathering of distinguished men, who represent the best and 
most advanced thought of the Americas. It is a policy 

1 5 which this Government has unhesitatingly adopted and 
which it will do all in its power to foster and promote. 

When we attempt to analyze Pan-Americanism we find 
that the essential qualities are those of the family — 
sympathy, helpfulness and a sincere desire to see another 

2 o grow in prosperity, absence of covetousness of another's 
possessions, absence of jealousy of another's prominence, 
and, above all, absence of that spirit of intrigue which 
menaces the domestic peace of a neighbor. Such are the 
qualities of the family tie among individuals, and such 

2$ should be, and I believe are, the qualities which compose 
the tie which unites the American Family of Nations. 

I speak only for the Government of the United States, 
but in doing so I am sure that I express sentiments which 
will find an echo in every Republic represented here, when 

30 1 say that the might of this country will never be exer- 
cised in a spirit of greed to wrest from a neighboring 
state its territory or possessions. The ambitions of this 
Republic do not He in the path of conquest but in the 
paths of peace and justice. Whenever and wherever we 

35 can we will stretch forth a hand to those who need help. 
If the sovereignty of a sister Republic is menaced from 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 129 

overseas, the power of the United States and, I hope and 
believe, the united power of the American Republics will 
constitute a bulwark which will protect the independence 
and integrity of their neighbor from unjust invasion or 
aggression. The American Family of Nations might 5 
well take for its motto that of Dumas ' famous musketeers, 
"One for all; all for one." 

If I have correctly interpreted Pan-Americanism from 
the standpoint of the relations of our Governments with 
those beyond the seas, it is in entire harmony with the 10 
Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine is a national 
policy of the United States. Pan- Americanism is an in- 
ternational policy of the Americas. The motives are to 
an extent different; the ends sought are the same. Both 
can exist without impairing the force of either. And 15 
both do exist and, I trust, will ever exist in all their vigor. 

But Pan-Americanism extends beyond the sphere of 
pohtics and finds its application in the varied fields of 
human enterprise. Bearing in mind that the essential 
idea manifests itself in cooperation, it becomes necessary 20 
for effective cooperation that we should know each other 
better than we do now. We must not only be neighbors, 
but friends; not only friends, but intimates. We must 
understand one another. We must comprehend our sev- 
eral needs. We must study the phases of material and 25 
intellectual development which enter into the varied 
problems of national progress. We should, therefore, 
when opportunity offers, come together and familiarize 
ourselves with each others processes of thought in deal- 
ing with legal, economic, and educational questions. 30 

Commerce and industry, science and art, public and 
private law, government and education, all those great 
fields which invite the intellectual thought of man, fall 
within the province of the deliberations of this Congress. 
In the exchange of ideas and comparison of experiences 35 
we will come to know one another and to carry to the 



130 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

nations which we represent a better and truer knowledge 
of our neighbors than we have had in the past. I believe 
that from that wider knowledge a mutual esteem and 
trust will spring which will unite these Republics more 
5 closely politically, commercially, and intellectually, and 
will give to the Pan-American spirit an impulse and power 
which it has never known before. 

The present epoch is one which must bring home to 
every thinking American the wonderful benefits to be 

i o gained by trusting our neighbors and by being trusted by 
them, by cooperation and helpfulness, by a dignified re- 
gard for the rights of all, and by living our national lives 
in harmony and good will. 

Across the thousands of miles of the Atlantic we see 

15 Europe convulsed with the most terrible conflict which 
this world has ever witnessed; we see the manhood of 
these great nations shattered, their homes ruined, their 
productive energies devoted to the one purpose of destroy- 
ing their fellowmen. When we contemplate the untold 

20 misery which these once happy people are enduring and 
the heritage which they are transmitting to succeeding 
generations, we can not but contrast a continent at war 
and a continent at peace. The spectacle teaches a lesson 
we can not ignore. 

25 If we seek the dominant ideas in world politics since we 
became independent nations, we will find that we won our 
liberties when individualism absorbed men's thoughts and 
inspired their deeds. This idea was gradually supplanted 
by that of nationalism, which found expression in the am- 

30 bitions of conquest and the greed for territory so manifest 
in the nineteenth century. Following the impulse of 
nationalism the idea of internationalism began to develop. 
It appeared to be an increasing influence throughout the 
civilized world, when the present war of Empires, that 

35 great manifestation of nationalism, stayed its progress in 
Europe and brought discouragement to those who had 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 131 

hoped that the new idea would usher in an era of uni- 
versal peace and justice. 

While we are not actual participants in the momentous 
struggle which is shattering the ideals toward which 
civilization was moving and is breaking down those 5 
principles on which internationalism is founded, we stand 
as anxious spectators of this most terrible example of 
nationalism. Let us hope that it is the final outburst of 
the cardinal evils of that idea which has for nearly a cen- 
tury spread its baleful influence over the world. 10 

Pan-Americanism is an expression of the idea of inter- 
nationalism. America has become the guardian of that 
idea, which will in the end rule the world. Pan- Ameri- 
canism is the most advanced as well as the most practical 
form of that idea. It has been made possible because of 15 
our geographical isolation, of our similar political institu- 
tions, and of our common conception of human rights. 
Since the European war began other factors have strength- 
ened this natural bond and given impulse to the move- 
ment. Never before have our people so fully realized 20 
the significance of the words, "Peace" and "Fraternity." 
Never have the need and benefit of international cooper- 
ation in every form of human activity been so evident as 
they are to-day. 

The path of opportunity lies plain before us Americans. 25 
The government and people of every Republic should 
strive to inspire in others confidence and cooperation by 
exhibiting integrity of purpose and equity in action. Let 
us as members of this Congress, therefore, meet together 
on the plane of common interests and together seek the 30 
common good. Whatever is of common interest, what- 
ever makes for the common good, whatever demands 
united effort is a fit subject for applied Pan-Americanism. 

I Fraternal helpfulness is the keystone to the arch. Its 
pillars are faith and justice. 35 

In this great movement this congress will, I believe, 



132 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

play an exalted part. You, gentlemen, represent power- 
ful intellectual forces in your respective countries. To- 
gether you represent the enlightened thought of the con- 
tinent. The policy of Pan- Americanism is practical. 
5 The Pan-American spirit is ideal. It finds its source and 
being in the minds of thinking men. It is the offspring 
of the best, the noblest conception of international obli- 
gation. 

x With all earnestness, therefore, I commend to you, 
10 gentlemen, the thought of the American Republics, twenty- 
one sovereign and independent nations, bound together 
by faith and justice, and firmly cemented by a sympathy 
which knows no superior and no inferior, but which 
recognizes only equality and fraternity. 

INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY AND THE RESPONSIBILITY 
OF THE BAR° 

By Elihu Root. (1916) 

15 Our country is passing in under the shadow of great 
responsibilities and great dangers to its institutions. 

We are no longer isolated. The everflowing stream of 
ocean which surrounds us is no longer a barrier. We have 
grown so great, the bonds that unite us in trade, in influ- 

20 ence, in power, with the rest of the world have become so 
strong and compelling that we cannot live unto ourselves 
alone. 

New questions loom up in the horizon which must be 
met ; questions upon which we have little or no precedent 

25 to guide us; questions upon the right determination of 
which the peace and prosperity of our country will de- 
pend. Those questions can be met only by a nation worthy 
to deal with them. They can be met by a democracy 
only as it is prepared for the performance of its duty. . . . 

30 How are we to meet the future, and what is the respon- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 133 

sibility of the bar, that is the guardian of American law, 
toward meeting that future? It is not a matter of op- 
portunism; it is not a matter of temporary expedient. 
The situation cannot be dealt with by merely doing what 
seems to you and to me to be the expedient thing in this 5 
situation and in that situation today or tomorrow. Our . 
people must base themselves upon a foundation of prin- 
ciple. They must renew their loyalty to ideals. And 
the basic principle is the principle- of American law. 

It is the principle of individual liberty which has grown 10 
out of the life of the Anglo-Saxon race and has been waxing 
strong during all the seven hundred years since Magna 
Chart a. That was the formative principle that made 
America, the United States and Canada, from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific, from the Gulf to the frozen north, 15 
English speaking, pursuing the course of the common 
law, preserving liberty and doing justice. That, the 
power of that principle of individual liberty that developed 
in the life of our race, is the greatest formative power in 
the history of the world. Over against it stands the 20 
principle of the state. Upon the one hand is the declara- 
tion in that great instrument, the value of which we hardly 
yet appreciate, the immortal Declaration, penned by 
Thomas Jefferson, that all men are created with unalien- 
able rights, which governments are created to preserve. 25 
On the other hand is the principle that states are created 
with supreme rights which all individuals are bound to 
observe. The one centers the system of law and order 
and justice upon the inalienable right of the individual : 
the other centers the system of law and order and justice 30 
upon the rights of the state, which subordinates the 
rights of the individual, and that is the fundamental 
question which is being fought out upon the battlefields 
of Europe. 

Here in this country we have enjoyed liberty and order 35 
so long that we have forgotten how they came. Our 



134 AMEBIC AX PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

people assume that they come as the air comes, to be 
breathed; they have assumed that they will, of their 
nature and by their own force, continue forever, without 
effort. Ah, no ! Liberty has always been born of struggle. 
5 It has not come save through sacrifice and the blood of 
martyrs and the devotion of mankind. And it is not to 
be preserved except by jealous watchfulness and stern 
determination always to be free. 

That eternal vigilance is the price of liberty is such a 

io truism that it has lost its meaning, but it is an eternal 
truth, and the principles of American liberty today stand 
in need of a renewed devotion on the part of the American 
people. We have forgotten that in our vast material 
prosperity. We have grown so rich, we have lived in 

15 ease and comfort and peace so long, that we have forgotten 
to what we owe those agreeable incidents of life. We 
must be prepared to defend our individual liberty in two 
ways. We must be prepared to do it first by force of 
arms against all external aggression. God knows I love 

20 peace and I despise all foolish and wicked wars, but I do 
not wish for my country the peace of slavery or dishonor 
or injustice or poltroonery. I want to see in my country 
the spirit that beat in the breasts of the men at Concord 
Bridge, who were just and God-fearing men, but who were 

25 ready to fight for their liberty. And if the hundred mil- 
lion people of America have that spirit and it is made 
manifest they will not have to fight. 

But there is another way in which we must be prepared 
to defend it, and this is necessary to the first : We must be 

30 prepared to defend it within as against all indifference and 
false doctrine, against all willingness to submit individual 
independence to the control of practical tyranny, whether 
it be of a monarch or a majority. 

Now there are certain circumstances which tend toward 

35 weakening the allegiance of the American people to the 
fundamental principles upon which the law of America 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 135 

is based. One of them is that the changes in conditions 
have required and are continually requiring extensions of 
government, governmental regulation and control, in 
order to prevent injustice ; and we naturally turn in the 
creation of these new and necessary regulations to those 5 
governments which have been most efficient in regulations, 
and those are the governments which sacrifice individual 
liberty for the purpose of regulating the conduct of men ; 
and so the tendency is away from the old American prin- 
ciples toward the principles of bureaucratic and govern- 10 
mental control over individual life; a dangerous road 
for a free people to travel to attain necessary results, and 
the danger is that in attaining those results the true prin- 
ciples of liberty be lost sight of. 

Another circumstance which we ought not to lose sight 15 
of is the fact that a vast number of people have come to the 
United States within very recent times from those countries 
of Europe which differ so widely in their fundamental con- 
ceptions of law and personal freedom from ourselves. 

The millions of immigrants who have come from the 20 
continent of Europe have come from communities which 
have not the traditions of individual liberty, but the 
traditions of state control over liberty; they have come 
from communities in which the courts are part of the 
administrative system of the government, not independent 25 
tribunals to do justice between the individual and the 
government ; they have come from communities in which 
the law is contained in codes framed and imposed upon 
the people by superior power, and not communities like 
ours, in which the law is the growth of the life of the 30 
people, made by the people, through their own recognition 
of their needs. 

It is a slow process to change the attitude of the in- 
dividual toward law, toward political principles. It can- 
not be done in a moment, and this great mass of men, 35 
good men, good women, without our traditions, but with 



136 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

entirely different traditions, will change us unless we 
change them. 

Fifteen per cent of the lawyers of this city are foreign 
born. Fifty per cent of the lawyers of this city are either 
s foreign born or of foreign parents. And the great mass of 
them have 'in their blood, with all the able and brilliant 
and good and noble men among them — have in their 
blood necessarily the traditions of the countries from 
which they came. They cannot help it. They will hold 

i o those traditions until they are expelled by the spirit of 
American institutions. That is a question of time. And 
somebody has got to look after it. Somebody has got to 
make the spirit of those institutions vocal. Somebody has 
got to exhibit belief in them, trust in them, devotion to 

i s them, loyalty to them, or you cannot win this great body 
from continental Europe to a true understanding of and 
loyalty to our institutions. 

The change may well be seen in our colleges and law 
schools, where there are many professors who think they 

20 know better what law ought to be, and what the princi- 
ples of jurisprudence ought to be, and what the political 
institutions of the country ought to be, than the people 
of England and America, working out their laws through 
centuries of life. And these men, who think they know it 

25 all, these half-baked and conceited theorists, are teaching 
the boys in our law schools and in our colleges to despise 
American institutions. 

Here is a great new duty for the bar, and if we have not 
been hypocrites during all these years in which we have 

30 been standing up in court and appealing to the principles 
of the law, appealing to the principles of our Constitution, 
demanding justice according to the rules of the common 
law for our clients; if we have not been hypocrites, we 
will come to the defense and the assertion — the trium- 

35 phant assertion — of those principles upon which we have 
been relying. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 137 

All classes and conditions of men are organized, the 
merchants, the manufacturers, the bankers, the clergymen, 
the farmers, the laborers, actively interested in the pro- 
motion of the ideals of their class or their calling. It is 
for lawyers to perform the highest duty, for the ideals of 5 
their class, or their calling, are the ideals of our country's 
free institutions. . . . 

The whole business of government, in which we are all 
concerned, is becoming serious, grave, threatening. No 
man in America has any right to rest contented and easy 10 
and indifferent ; for never before, not even in the time of 
the Civil War, have all the energies and all the devotion 
of the American Democracy been demanded for the per- 
petuity of American institutions, for the continuance of 
the American Republic against foes without and more 15 
insidious foes within, than in this year of grace 1916. 



PATRIOTISM ° 
By Lyman Abbott. (March 8, 1916) 

A nation is made great, not by its fruitful acres, but 
by the men who cultivate them ; not by its great forests, 
but by the men who use them ; not by its mines, but by 
the men who work in them; not by its railways, but by 20 
the men who build and run them. America was a great 
land when Columbus discovered it ; Americans have made 
of it a great Nation. 

In 1776 our fathers had a vision of a new Nation "con- 
ceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all 25 
men are created equal." Without an army they fought 
the greatest of existing world empires that they might 
realize this vision. A third of a century later, without a 
navy they fought the greatest navy in the world that they 
might win for their Nation the freedom of the seas. Half 30 
a century later they fought through an unparalleled Civil . 



138 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

War that they might establish for all time on this con- 
tinent the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness. A third of a century later they fought to 
emancipate an oppressed neighbor, and, victory won, 
5 gave back Cuba to the Cubans, sent an army of school- 
masters to educate for liberty the Filipinos, asked no war 
indemnity from their vanquished enemy, but paid him 
liberally for his property. Meanwhile they offered land 
freely to any farmer who would live upon and cultivate it, 

10 opened to foreign immigrants on equal terms the door of 
industrial opportunity, shared with them political equal- 
ity, and provided by universal taxation for universal 
education. 

The cynic who can see in this history only a theme for 

1 5 his egotistical satire is no true American, whatever his 
parentage, whatever his birthplace. He who looks with 
pride upon this history which his fathers have written 
by their heroic deeds, who accepts with gratitude the 
inheritance which they have bequeathed to him, and who 

20 highly resolves to preserve this inheritance unimpaired 
and to pass it on to his descendants enlarged and enriched, 
is a true American, be his birthplace or his parentage what 
it may. 

WHAT THE FLAG MEANS 

By Charles Evans Hughes. (June, 1916) 

This flag means more than^ association and reward. 
25 It is the symbol of our national unity, our national en- 
deavor, our national aspiration. It tells you of the 
struggle for independence, of union preserved, of liberty 
and union one and inseparable, of the sacrifices of brave 
men and women to whom the ideals andwhonor of this 
30 nation have been dearer than life. 

It means America first; it means an undivided alle- 
giance. It means America united, strong and efficient, 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 139 

equal to her tasks. It means that you cannot be saved by 
the valor and devotion of your ancestors; that to each 
generation comes its patriotic duty ; and that upon your 
willingness to sacrifice and endure as those before you 
have sacrificed and endured rests the national hope. 5 

It speaks of equal rights; of the inspiration of free 
institutions exemplified and vindicated; of liberty under 
law intelligently conceived and impartially administered. 

There is not a thread in it but scorns self-indulgence, 
weakness, and rapacity. It is eloquent of our community 10 
interests, outweighing all divergences of opinion, and of 
our common destiny. 

Given as a prize to those of the highest standing, it 
happily enforces the lesson that intelligence and zeal must 
go together, that discipline must accompany emotions, 15 
and that we must ultimately rely upon enlightened 
opinion. 

MILITARY TRAINING IN A DEMOCRACY 

By The World's Work. (January, 1917) 

The sentiment for universal military training has been 
of reluctant growth in this country, but it seems now to 
have taken hold upon the convictions of the American 20 
people. They long fostered a noble aspiration for per- 
petual peace — an aspiration based not upon fear or 
slothfulness or creature comfort, but upon a profound 
conviction of the wickedness and the futility of war. 
And so benign had been their intentions toward the rest 25 
of the world that they had come to assume that the 
United States was outside the range of foreign envy or 
malice. 

The dream has been shattered. The vastest war and 
one of the most ferocious in history has destroyed the 30 
illusion of a permanent peace of altruism. And instead 
of finding the benignancy of our intentions a bar to hos- 



140 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

tility abroad, we have found ourselves on every hand con- 
fronted by short-tempered nations whose speech to us 
has been as sharp as the limits of prudence would permit. 
We have taken the hint, and, relaxing no whit our 
5 benevolence of purpose, we have gone halfway toward 
assurmg that we shall so far arm ourselves as to guarantee 
that we shall be strong enough to be left alone to pursue 
our peaceful way. President Wilson knew the history 
and the temper of the American people well enough to 

ioknow that they believed by inheritance in a strong navy 
and a weak army ; and he got the means of defense they 
would most quickly agree to — he got for the navy the 
most prodigious appropriation in its history. 

Now the people see the need of a strong army as well. 

15 If it is not to become the instrument of oppression which 
history has taught them to dread, it must be a demo- 
cratic army — and that means universal military train- 
ing. It does not mean the continental system of long- 
term service. Least of all does it mean the erection of 

20 another Prussian hereditary class of military egotists, or 
the more romantic but scarcely less repugnant military 
cast of the professional British army before the war. 
What is wanted hi this country is a training in the use of 
arms and the usages of war as brief as the Australian or 

25 the Swiss, and an organization as democratic as the 
French, where officers and men are simply fellow-citizens 
in a common service of defense. More than this will not 
be tolerated by the great body of American people : less 
than this will not be enough to guarantee the Nation's 

30 safety. 

AN AMERICAN CREED 

By Charles W. Eliot. (April 8, 1917) 

"The Sun" asks me for a an American creed/ ' I 
object to creeds in general, because they often pretend to 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 141 

be fixed or final statements of belief. Nevertheless I 
write out here a political and social creed which I think 
is accepted today by most thoughtful and dutiful Amer- 
icans. It is to be expected and hoped that every to- 
morrow will improve it. 5 

Americans believe 

In individual liberty, so far as it can be exercised with- 
out injury to the superior rights of the community : 

In complete religious toleration : 

In freedom of speech and of the press, subject only to 10 
temporary restraint in times of popular excitement by 
public authority only : 

In the control of public policies and measures by rep- 
resentative, legislative assemblies elected by universal 
suffrage: 15 

In an executive head of the nation elected for a short 
term by universal suffrage, and exercising large powers, 
but under constitutional limitations : 

In local self-government : 

In a universal education which discovers or reveals 20 
the best function for each individual, and helps him 
toward it: 

In a free and mobile social state which permits each 
individual to render to the community the best service 
of which he is capable : 25 

In resistance to evil men and governments, and in the 
prevention of evils by every means that applied science 
has put into the hands of man : 

In submission to the will of the majority after full dis- 
cussion and a fair vote : 30 

In leading rather than driving men, women, and chil- 
dren : 

In the practice of reasoning, self-guidance, and self- 
control rather than of implicit obedience : 

In the doctrine of each for all and all for each : 35 

In a universal sense of obligation to the community 



142 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

and the country, an obligation to be discharged by serv- 
ice, gratitude, and love : 

In the dignity and strength of common human nature, 
and therefore in democracy and its ultimate triumph. 



THE CHALLENGE 

By Woodrow Wilson. (April 2, 1917) 

5 Gentlemen of the Congress. I have called the Con- 
gress into extraordinary session because there are serious, 
very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made imme- 
diately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally 
permissible that I should assume the responsibility of 

i o making. 

On the third of February last I officially laid before you 
the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German 
Government that on and after the first day of February it 
was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of hu- 

15 inanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that 
sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and 
Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports 
controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediter- 
ranean. That had seemed to be the object of the Ger- 

2 oman submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since April 
of last year the Imperial Government had somewhat re- 
strained the commanders of its undersea craft in conform- 
ity with its promise then given to us that passenger boats 
should not be sunk and that due warning would be given 

25 to all other vessels which its submarines might seek to 
destroy, when no resistance was offered or escape at- 
tempted, and care taken that their crews were given at 
least a fair chance to save their lives in their open boats. 
The precautions taken were meagre and haphazard enough 

30 as was proved in distressing instance after instance in 
the progress of the cruel and unmanly business, but a cer- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 143 

tain degree of restraint was observed. The new policy 
has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, 
whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their 
destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the 
bottom without warning and without thought of help or 5 
mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals 
along with those of belligerents. Even hospital ships 
carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken people 
of Belgium, though the latter were provided with safe con- 
duct through the proscribed areas by the German Gov- 10 
ernment itself and were distinguished by unmistakable 
marks of identity, have been sunk with the same reckless 
lack of compassion or of principle. 

I was for a little while unable to believe that such things 
would in fact be done by any government that had hitherto 1 5 
subscribed to the humane practices of civilized nations. 
International law had its origin in the attempt to set up 
some law which would be respected and observed upon 
the seas, where no nation had right of dominion and where 
lay the free highways of the world. By painful stage after 20 
stage has that law been built up, with meagre enough re- 
sults, indeed, after all was accomplished that could be ac- 
complished, but always with a clear view, at least, of what 
the heart and conscience of mankind demanded. This 
minimum of right the German Government has swept 25 
aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and 
because it had no weapons which it could use at sea except 
these which it is impossible to employ as it is employing 
them without throwing to the winds all scruples of hu- 
manity or of respect for the understandings that were 30 
supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world. I am 
not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense 
and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and whole- 
sale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men, women, 
and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even 35 
in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed 



144 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for ; the 
lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The 
present German submarine warfare against commerce is 
a warfare against mankind. 
5 It is a war against all nations. American ships have 
been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has 
stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and 
people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk 
and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There 

iohas been no discrimination. The challenge is to all man- 
kind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet 
it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with 
a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment 
befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We 

1 5 must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be 
revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might 
of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human 
right, of which we are only a single champion. 

When I addressed the Congress on the twenty-sixth of 

20 February last I thought that it would suffice to assert our 
neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas against 
unlawful interference, our right to keep our people safe 
against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality, it 
now appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are 

25m effect outlaws when used as the German submarines 
have been used against merchant shipping, it is impossible 
to defend ships against their attacks as the law of nations 
has assumed that merchantmen would defend themselves 
against privateers or cruisers, visible craft giving chase 

30 upon the open sea. It is common prudence in such cir- 
cumstances, grim necessity indeed, to endeavor to de- 
stroy them before they have shown their own intention. 
They must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all. 
The German Government denies the right of neutrals to 

35 use arms at all within the areas of the sea which it has pro- 
scribed, even in the defense of rights which no modern pub- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 145 

licist has ever before questioned their right to defend. 
The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which 
we have placed on our merchant ships will be treated as 
beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with as 
pirates would be. Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough 5 
at best ; in such circumstances and in the face of such pre- 
tensions it is worse than ineffectual: it is likely only to 
produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically 
certain to draw us into the war without either the rights 
or the effectiveness of belligerents. There is one choice 10 
we cannot make, we are incapable of making : we will not 
choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred 
rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or vio- 
lated. The wrongs against which we now array ourselves 
are no common wrongs ; they cut to the very roots of 1 5 
human life. 

With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical 
character of the step I am taking and of the grave respon- 
sibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to 
what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that the Con- 20 
gress declare the recent course of the Imperial German 
Government to be in fact nothing less than war against 
the government and people of the United States ; that it 
formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus 
been thrust upon it ; and that it take immediate steps 25 
not only to put the country in a more thorough state of 
defense but also to exert all its power and employ all its 
resources to bring the Government of the German Empire 
to terms and end the war. 

What this will involve is clear. It will involve the ut- 30 
most practicable cooperation in counsel and action with 
the governments now at war with Germany, and, as inci- 
dent to that, the extension to those governments of the 
most liberal financial credits, in order that our resources 
may so far as possible be added to theirs. It will involve 35 
the organization and mobilization of all the material re- 



146 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

sources of the country to supply the materials of war and 
serve the incidental needs of the nation in the most abun- 
dant and yet the most economical and efficient way pos- 
sible. It will involve the immediate full equipment of 
5 the navy in all respects but particularly in supplying it 
with the best means of dealing with the enemy's sub- 
marines. It will involve the immediate addition to the 
armed forces of the United States already provided for 
by law in case of war at least five hundred thousand men, 

io who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principle 
of universal liability to service, and also the authorization 
of subsequent additional increments of equal force so soon 
as they may be needed and can be handled in training. 
It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate 

15 credits to the Government, sustained, I hope, so far as 
they can equitably be sustained by the present generation, 
by well-conceived taxation. 

I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation 
because it seems to me that it would be most unwise to 

2 o base the credits which will now be necessary entirely on 
money borrowed. It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, 
to protect our people so far as we may against the verjk 
serious hardships and evils which would be likely to 
arise out of the inflation which would be produced by 

25 vast loans. 

In carrying out the measures by which these things are 
to be accomplished we should keep constantly in mind 
the wisdom of interfering as little as possible in our own 
preparation and in the equipment of our own military 

30 forces with the duty, — for it will be a very practical 
duty, — of supplying the nations already at war with 
Germany with the materials which they can obtain 
only from us or by our assistance. They are in the 
field and we should help them in every way to be effec- 

35tive there. 

I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several 






AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 147 

executive departments of the Government, for the con- 
sideration of your committees, measures for the accom- 
plishment of the several objects I have mentioned. I 
hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with them as 
having been framed after very careful thought by the 5 
branch of the Government upon which the responsibil- 
ity of conducting the war and safeguarding the nation 
will most directly fall. 

While we do these things, these deeply momentous 
things, let us be very clear, and make very dear to all the 10 
world what our motives and our objects are. My own 
thought has not been driven from its habitual and normal 
course by the unhappy events of the last two months, 
and I do not believe that the thought of the nation has 
been altered or clouded by them. I have exactly the 15 
same things in mind now that I had in mind when I ad- 
dressed the Senate on the twenty-second of January last ; 
the same that I had in mind when I addressed the Congress 
on the third of February and on the twenty-sixth of Feb- 
ruary. Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the prin- 20 
ciples of peace and justice in the life of the world as against 
selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst the 
really free and self-governed peoples of the world such a 
concert of purpose and of action as will henceforth insure 
the observance of those principles. Neutrality is no 25 
longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world 
is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace 
to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic 
governments backed by organized force which is controlled 
wholly by their will, not by the will of their people. We 30 
have seen the last of neutrality in such circumstances. 
We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be in- 
sisted that the same standards of conduct and of re- 
sponsibility for wrong done shall be observed among 
nations and their governments that are observed among 35 
the individual citizens of civilized states. 



148 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

We have no quarrel with the German people. We 
have no feeling towards them but one of sympathy and 
friendship. It was not upon their impulse that their 
government acted in entering this war. It was not with 
5 their previous knowledge or approval. It was a war de- 
termined upon as wars used to be determined upon in the 
old, unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consulted 
by their rulers and wars were provoked and waged in the 
interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men 

10 who were accustomed to use their fellow men as pawns 
and tools. Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor 
states with spies or set the course of intrigue to bring 
about some critical posture of affairs which will give them 
an opportunity to strike and make conquest. Such de- 

15 signs can be successfully worked out only under cover 
and where no one has the right to ask questions. Cun- 
ningly contrived plans of deception or aggression, carried, 
it may be, from generation to generation, can be worked 
out and kept from the fight only within the privacy of 

20 courts or behind the carefully guarded confidences of a 
narrow and privileged class. They are happily impossible 
where public opinion commands and insists upon full in- 
formation concerning all the nation's affairs. 
A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained 

25 except by a partnership of democratic nations. No auto- 
cratic government could be trusted to keep faith within 
it or observe its covenants. It must be a league of 
honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its 
vitals away ; the plottings of inner circles who could plan 

30 what they would and render account to no one would be 
a corruption seated at its very heart. Only free peoples 
can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a com- 
mon end and prefer the interests of mankind to any nar- 
row interest of their own. 

35 Does not every American feel that assurance has been 
added to our hope for the future peace of the world by 



AMEBIC AN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 149 

the wonderful and heartening things that have been hap- 
pening within the last few weeks in Russia? Russia was 
known by those who knew it best to have been always in 
fact democratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her 
thoughts, in all the intimate relationships of her people 5 
that spoke their natural instinct, their habitual attitude 
towards life. The autocracy that crowned the summit of 
her political structure, long as it had stood and terrible as 
was the reality of its power, was not in fact Russian in 
origin, character, or purpose ; and now it has been shaken 10 
off and the great, generous Russian people have been added 
in all their naive majesty and might to the forces that are 
righting for freedom in the world, for justice, and for peace. 
Here is a fit partner for a League of Honor. 

One of the things that has served to convince us that 15 
the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our 
friend is that from the very outset of the present war it 
has rilled our unsuspecting communities and even our 
offices of government with spies and set criminal intrigues 
everywhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, 20 
our peace within and without, our industries and our com- 
merce. Indeed it is now evident that its spies were here 
even before the war began ; and it is unhappily not a mat- 
ter of conjecture but a fact proved in our courts of justice 
that the intrigues which have more than once come peril- 25 
ously near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the 
industries of the country have been carried on at the in- 
stigation, with the support, and even under the personal 
direction of official agents of the Imperial Government 
accredited to the Government of the United States. Even 30 
in checking these things and trying to extirpate them we 
have sought to put the most generous interpretation pos- 
sible upon them because we knew that their source lay, 
tnot in any hostile feeling or purpose of the German people 
towards us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant of them as3S 
we ourselves were), but only in the selfish designs of a 



150 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

government that did what it pleased and told its people 
nothing. But they have played their part in serving to 
convince us at last that that government entertains no 
real friendship for us and means to act against our peace 
5 and security at its convenience. That it means to stir 
up enemies against us at our very doors the intercepted 
note to the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent 
evidence. 
We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose be- 

10 cause we know that in such a government, following such 
methods, we can never have a friend; and that in the 
presence of its organized power, always lying in wait to 
accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no 
assured security for the democratic governments of the 

15 world. We are now about to accept gauge of battle with 
this natural foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend 
the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pre- 
tensions and its power. We are glad, now that we see 
the facts with no veil of false pretense about them, to fight 

20 thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liber- 
ation of its peoples, the German peoples included : for the 
rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men 
everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. 
The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace 

25 must be planted upon the tested foundations of political 
liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire 
no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for 
ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we 
shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of 

30 the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those 
rights have been made as secure as the faith and the free- 
dom of nations can make them. 

Just because we fight without rancor and without self- 
ish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall 

35 wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, 
conduct our operations as belligerents without passion 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 151 

and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles 
of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for. 

I have said nothing of the governments allied with the 
Imperial Government of Germany because they have not 
made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and 5 
our honor. The Austro-Hungarian Government has, 
indeed, avowed its unqualified endorsement and accept- 
ance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare 
adopted now without disguise by the Imperial German 
Government, and it has therefore not been possible for 10 
this Government to receive Count Tarnowski, the Am- 
bassador recently accredited to this Government by the 
Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary; 
but that Government has not actually engaged in warfare 
against citizens of the United States on the seas, and 1 15 
take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a 
discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna. 
We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it 
because there are no other means of defending our rights. 

It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as 20 
belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because 
we act without animus, not in enmity towards a people or 
with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon 
them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible 
government which has thrown aside all considerations of 25 
humanhVy and of right and is running amuck. We are, 
let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, 
and shall desire nothing so much as the early reestablish- 
ment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between 
us, — however hard it may be for them, for the time being, 30 
to believe that this is spoken from our hearts. We have 
borne with their present government through all these 
bitter months because of that friendship, — exercising a 
patience and forbearance which would otherwise have 
been impossible. We shall, happily, still have an oppor- 35 
tunity to prove that friendship in our daily attitude and 



152 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

actions towards the millions of men and women of German 
birth and native sympathy who live amongst us and share 
our life, and we shall be proud to prove it towards all who 
are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the Government 

5 in the hour of test. They are, most of them, as true and 
loyal Americans as if they had never known any other 
fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with 
us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a 
different mind and purpose. If there should be disloyalty, 

ioit will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression ; 
but, if it lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and 
there and without countenance except from a lawless and 
malignant few. 

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of the 

15 Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. 
There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sac- 
rifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great 
peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and dis- 
astrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the 

20 balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and 
we shall fight for the things which we have always carried 
nearest our hearts, — for democracy, for the right of those 
who submit to authority to have a voice in their own gov- 
ernments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for 

25 a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free 
peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and 
make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can 
dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are 
and everything that we have, with the pride of those who 

30 know that the day has come when America is privileged 
to spend her blood and her might for the principles that 
gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has 
treasured. God helping her, she can do no other. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 153 

WHY THIS IS AMERICA'S WAR 

By The World's Work. (May, 1917) 

This is America's war. The men who founded this gov- 
ernment hoped that some day its principles would encom- 
pass the earth, and from that day to this every American 
who has known his heritage has hoped that every able 
people would take unto itself its own government. The 5 
distrust of kings and all the system of privileges that hangs 
about them is bred deep in the bone with us. Perhaps in 
some cases the distrust is unreasonable, but fundamentally 
it is right. Nearly a hundred years ago President Monroe 
enunciated his famous doctrine. One of its main tenets 10 
was and is that any extension of monarchy on this side 
of the ocean is a menace to our free institutions. It has be- 
come even clearer lately that any spread of the Prussian 
autocratic power was a menace to free institutions all over 
the world, ours as well as all others. If the Monroe Doctrine is 
was wise in its day the war for democracy is wise now. 

It is true that overt acts which plunged us into war 
against the Kaiser were the sinking of our ships. Similarly 
we went to war against George III because of a stamp tax. 
But the repeal of the stamp duties would never have 20 
stopped the Declaration of Independence, nor would a 
German offer to let our ships pass return us to a painful 
neutrality between the world's freedom and the doctrine 
of divine right. 

Fundamentally it is a war for human rights, for gov- 25 
ernment by the governed. Gradually the peoples of the 
world are recognizing the true character of the struggle 
and allying themselves against the Kaiser and the Prussian 
machine. And the Kaiser on his side has no allies. He 
has semi- vassal states. Germans direct the Austrian 30 
armies, and Austrian diplomacy is but a shadow of the 
German. Bulgarian policies are fixed in Berlin more than 



154 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

in Sofia. And Enver Pasha's ruling clique in Turkey is un- 
der the thumb of the German masters. These semi-vassal 
states might revolt, but except by revolt their freedom as 
states is largely ended, and while they are dominated by 
5 Prussia there is little hope for the political freedom of their 
subjects. The 160 million who live in the Kaiser's hoped- 
for place in the sun — from Hamburg to Bagdad — were 
to be doomed to reaction and to drill until they would 
spread reaction over the rest of the world. 

io The peoples of the world have one after another, as 

the President phrased it, " seen the facts with no veil of false 

pretense about them" and joined the battle line of freedom. 

The French, the English, the Italian Liberals, the Greek 

Liberals, the Russian Liberals, and finally we, have seen 

is the true character of the struggle. And as the veil is lifted 

we have seen a brighter hope for human freedom than ever 

appeared before. The dark forces of dynasties and divine 

right will have few refugees when peace at last comes. 

Here, in England, in France, and irf Italy there will be 

20 a keener realization than ever before of the blessings of 
political freedom. The Russian people have made good 
their emancipation. The Poles can again govern them- 
selves. Greece will not longer be used for its king's kin- 
ship. China is struggling on to create a democracy. Lib- 

2$ eralism has everywhere in the neutral countries of Europe 
gained an added impetus. And unless the war be a failure, 
autocracy in Germany, Austria, and Turkey will be ended. 
The 160 millions of people who were to be trained to enslave 
the earth will themselves be freed. 

30 We are fighting for government by the representatives 
of the governed — by majority rule ; for the principle of 
nationalities that no nation need be an unwilling subject 
of another, that men of one race and language shall not 
be subservient to men of another, that peoples shall not 

35 be transferred from one government to another by sale or 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 155 

conquest, and that each nation, large and small, shall have 
a fair chance of economic growth in order not only that its 
people shall have security for life and liberty but also an 
opportunity for the pursuit of happiness and well-being. 

* 

THE GREAT STRUGGLE 
By Nicholas Murray Butler. (1917) 

One of the oldest and subtlest philosophies in the world 5 
teaches that the whole of history consists in the strug- 
gle between the principle of good and the principle of 
evil. It teaches that now one, now the other, is uppermost, 
but that as the good principle overcomes the evil, or as the 
evil principle overcomes the good, so mankind marches 10 
forward to freedom or so it falls back into serfdom and 
slavery. 

This great struggle between the good and the evil prin- 
ciple has taken, in this twentieth century, the form of a 
contest between two political and social principles which 15 
cannot live together in this world. And that is why this 
contest must be settled by force of arms. If those two 
principles had anything in common, an adjustment be- 
tween them might possibly be reached ; but each principle 
absolutely excludes the other. As Abraham Lincoln said 20 
a generation ago, "This nation cannot exist half slave and 
half free," so it may be said today, "This world cannot 
exist half despotism and half democracy." 

Democracy must in its way dispose of despotism or des- 
potism will in its way overcome democracy. Therefore 25 
it is to no ordinary contest that this nation goes forward. 
It is to no struggle as to which one may be for a moment 
indifferent. It is to the deepest and most tremendous 
conflict that all history records. 



156 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

THE MENACE 

By Woodrow Wilson. (June 14, 1917) 

My Fellow-Citizens : We meet to celebrate Flag Day 
because this flag which we honor and under which we 
serve is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought 
and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than 
5 that which we give it from generation to generation. The 
choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the 
hosts that execute those choices, whether in peace or in 
war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us, — speaks to 
us of the past, of the men and women who went before us 

io and of the records they wrote upon it. We celebrate the 
day of its birth ; and from its birth until now it has wit- 
nessed a great history, has floated on high the symbol of 
great events, of a great plan of life worked out by a great 
people. We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it 

15 where it will djaw the fire of our enemies. We are about 
to bid thousands, hundreds of thousands, it may be mil- 
lions, of our men, the young, the strong, the capable men 
of the nation, to go forth and die beneath it on the fields 
of blood far away, — for what ? For some unaccustomed 

20 thing? For something for which it has never sought the 
fire before? American armies were never before sent 
across the seas. Why are they sent now? For some new 
purpose, for which this great flag has never been carried 
before, or for some old, familiar, heroic purpose for which 

25 it has seen men, its own men, die on every battlefield upon 

which Americans have borne arms since the Revolution? 

These are questions which must be answered. We are 

Americans. We in our turn serve America, and can serve 

her with no private purpose. We must use her flag as she 

30 has always used it. We are accountable at the bar of his- 
tory and must plead in utter frankness what purpose it is 
we seek to serve. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 157 

It is plain enough how we were forced into the war. The 
extraordinary insults and aggressions of the Imperial Ger- 
man Government left us no self-respecting choice but to take 
up arms in defense of our rights as a free people and of our 
honor as a sovereign government. The military masters 5 
of Germany denied us the right to be neutral. They filled 
our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies and con- 
spirators and sought to corrupt the opinion of our people in 
their own behalf. When they found that they could not 
do that, their agents diligently spread sedition amongst us 10 
and sought to draw our own citizens from their allegiance, 
— and some of those agents were men connected with the 
official Embassy of the German Government itself here 
in our own capital. They sought by violence to destroy 
our industries and arrest our commerce. They tried to 1 5 
incite Mexico to take up arms against us and to draw 
Japan into a hostile alliance with her, — and that, not by 
indirection, but by direct suggestion from the Foreign 
Office in Berlin. They impudently denied us the use of 
the high seas and repeatedly executed their threat that 20 
they would send to their death any of our people who ven- 
tured to approach the coasts of Europe. And many of 
our own people were corrupted. Men began to look upon 
their own neighbors with suspicion and to wonder in their 
hot resentment and surprise whether there was any com- 25 
munity in which hostile intrigue did not lurk. What great 
nation in such circumstances would not have taken up 
arms? Much as we had desired peace, it was denied us, 
and not of our own choice. This flag under which we 
serve would have been dishonored had we withheld our 30 
hand. 

But that is only part of the story. We know now as 
clearly as we knew before we were ourselves engaged that 
we are not the enemies of the German people and that they 
are not our enemies. They did not originate or desire this 35 
hideous war or wish that we should be drawn into it ; and 



158 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND 'VERSE 

we are vaguely conscious that we are fighting their cause, 
as they will some da} 7 see it, as well as our own. They are 
themselves in the grip of the same sinister power that has 
now at last stretched its ugly talons out and drawn blood 

5 from us. The whole world is at war because the whole 

world is in the grip of that power and is trying out the 

great battle which shall determine whether it is to be 

brought under its mastery or fling itself free. 

The war was begun by the military masters of Germany, 

io who proved to be also the masters of Austria-Hungary. 
These men have never regarded nations as peoples, men, 
women, and children of like blood and frame as themselves, 
for whom governments existed and in whom governments 
had their life. They have regarded them merely as service- 

15 able organizations which they could by force or intrigue 
bend or corrupt to their own purpose. They have re- 
garded the smaller states, in particular, and the peoples 
who could be overwhelmed by force, as their natural tools 
and instruments of domination. Their purpose has long 

2 o been avowed. The statesmen of other nations, to whom 
that purpose was incredible, paid little attention ; regarded 
what German professors expounded in their classrooms 
and German writers set forth to the world as the goal of 
German policy as rather the dream of minds detached 

■z$ from practical affairs, as preposterous private conceptions 
of German .destiny, than as the actual plans of responsible 
rulers ; but the rulers of Germany themselves knew all the 
while what concrete plans, what well advanced intrigues 
lay back of what the professors and the writers were saying, 

30 and were glad to go forward unmolested, filling the thrones 
of Balkan states with German princes, putting German 
officers at the service of Turkey to drill her armies and 
make interest with her government, developing plans of 
sedition and rebellion in India and Egypt, setting their 

35 fires in Persia. The demands made by Austria upon Ser- 
via were a mere single step in a plan which compassed 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 159 

Europe and Asia, from Berlin to Bagdad. They hoped 
those demands might not arouse Europe, but they meant 
to press them whether they did or not, for they thought 
themselves ready for the final issue of arms. 

Their plan was to throw a broad belt of German military 5 
power and political control across the very centre of Eu- 
rope and beyond the Mediterranean into the heart of Asia ; 
and Austria-Hungary was to be as much their tool and 
pawn as Servia or Bulgaria or Turkey or the ponderous 
states of the East. Austria-Hungary, indeed, was to be- 10 
come part of the central German Empire, absorbed and 
dominated by the same forces and influences that had 
originally cemented the German states themselves. The 
dream had its heart at Berlin. It could have had a heart 
nowhere else! It rejected the idea of solidarity of race 15 
entirely. The choice of peoples played no part in it at all. 
It contemplated binding together racial and political units 
which could be kept together only by force, — Czechs, 
Magyars, Croats, Serbs, Roumanians, Turks, Armenians, 
— the proud states of Bohemia and Hungary, the stout 20 
little commonwealths of the Balkans, the indomitable 
Turks, the subtile peoples of the East. These peoples did 
not wish to be united. They ardently desired to direct 
their own affairs, would be satisfied only by undisputed 
independence. They could be kept quiet only by the pres- 25 
ence or the constant threat of armed men. They would 
live under a common power only by sheer compulsion and 
await the day of revolution. But the German military 
statesmen had reckoned with all that and were ready to 
deal with it in their own way. 30 

And they have actually carried the greater part of that 
amazing plan into execution! Look how things stand. 
Austria is at their mercy. It has acted, not upon its own 
initiative or upon the choice of its own people, but at Ber- 
lin's dictation ever since the war began. Its people now 35 
desire peace, but cannot have it until leave is granted from 



160 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Berlin. The so-called central Powers are in fact but ^ 
single Power. Servia is at its mercy, should its hands be 
but for a moment freed. Bulgaria has consented to its 
will, and Roumania is overrun. The Turkish armies, 
5 which Germans trained, are serving Germany, certainly 
not themselves, and the guns of German worships lying 
in the harbor at Constantinople remind Turkish states- 
men every day that they have no choice but to take their 
orders from Berlin. From Hamburg to the Persian Gulf 

10 the net is spread. 

Is it not easy to understand the eagerness for peace that 
has been manifest from Berlin ever since the snare was set 
and sprung? Peace, peace, peace, has been the talk of 
her Foreign Office for now a year and more; not peace 

15 upon her own initiative, but upon the initiative of the na- 
tions over which she now deems herself to hold the advan- 
tage. A little of the talk has been public, but most of it 
has been private. Through all sorts of channels it has 
come to me, and in all sorts of guises, but never with the 

20 terms disclosed which the German Government would 
be willing to accept. That government has other valuable 
pawns in its hands besides those I have mentioned. It 
still holds a valuable part of France, though with slowly 
relaxing grasp, and practically the whole of Belgium. Its 

25 armies press close upon Russia and overrun Poland at 
their will. It cannot go further; it dare not go back. 
It wishes to close its bargain before it is too late and it 
has little left to offer for the pound of flesh it will de- 
mand. 

30 The military masters under whom Germany is bleeding 
see very clearly to what point Fate has brought them. If 
they fall back or are forced back an inch, their power both 
abroad and at home will fall to pieces like a house of cards. 
It is their power at home they are thinking about now more 

35 than their power abroad. It is that power which is trem- 
bling under their very feet ; and deep fear has entered their 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 161 

hearts. They have but one chance to perpetuate their 
military power or even their controlling political influence. 
If they can secure peace now with the immense advantages 
still in their hands which they have up to this point appar- 
ently gained, they will have justified themselves before the 5 
German people : they will have gained by force what they 
promised to gain by it : an immense expansion of Ger- 
man power, an immense enlargement of German indus- 
trial and commercial opportunities. Their prestige will 
be secure, and with their prestige their political power. 10 
If they fail, their people will thrust them aside ; a govern 
ment accountable to the people themselves will be set up 
in Germany as it has been in England, in the United States, 
in France, and in all the great countries of the modern time 
except Germany. If they succeed they are safe and Ger- 15 
many and the world are undone ; if they fail Germany is 
saved and the world will be at peace. If they succeed, 
America will fall within the menace. We and all the rest 
of the world must remain armed, as they will remain, and 
must make ready for the next step in their aggression ; if 20 
they fail, the world may unite for peace and Germany may 
be of the union. 

Do you not now understand the new intrigue, the in- 
trigue for peace, and why the masters of Germany do not 
hesitate to use any agency that promises to effect their 25 
purpose, the deceit of the nations? Their present par- 
ticular aim is to deceive all those who throughout the world 
stand for the rights of peoples and the self-government of 
nations; for they see what immense strength the forces 
of justice and of liberalism are gathering out of this war. 30 
They are employing liberals in their enterprise. They are 
using men, in Germany and without, as their spokesmen 
whom they have hitherto despised and oppressed, using 
them for their own destruction, — socialists, the leaders 
of labor, the thinkers they have hitherto sought to silence. 35 
Let them once succeed and these men, now their tools, 

M 



162 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

will be ground to powder beneath the weight of the great 
military empire they will have set up ; the revolutionists 
in Russia will be cut off from all succor or cooperation in 
western Europe and a counter revolution fostered and 
5 supported ; Germany herself will lose her chance of free- 
dom; and all Europe will arm for the next, the final 
struggle. 

The sinister intrigue is being no less actively conducted 
in this country than in Russia and in every country in 

to Europe to which the agents and dupes of the Imperial 
German Government can get access. That government 
has many spokesmen here, in places high and low. They 
have learned discretion. They keep within the law. It 
is opinion they utter now, not sedition. They proclaim 

1 5 the liberal purposes of their masters ; declare this a foreign 
war which can touch America with no danger to either 
her lands or her institutions; set England at the centre 
of the stage and talk of her ambition to assert economic 
dominion throughout the world; appeal to our ancient 

2 o tradition of isolation in the politics of the nations; and 
seek to undermine the government with false professions 
of loyalty to its principles. 

But they will make no headway. The false betray 
themselves always in every accent. It is only friends and 

25 partisans of the German Government whom we have al- 
ready identified who utter these thinly disguised disloy- 
alties. The facts are patent to all the world, and no- 
where are they more plainly seen than in the United 
States, where we are accustomed to deal with facts and 

30 not with sophistries ; and the great fact that stands out 
above all the rest is that this is a Peoples' War, a war for 
freedom and justice and self-government amongst all 
the nations of the world, a war to make the world safe 
for the peoples who live upon it and have made it their 

35 own, the German people themselves included ; and that 
with us rests the choice to break through all these hypoc- 






AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IX PROSE AND VERSE 163 

risies and patent cheats and masks of brute force and 
help set the world free, or else stand aside and let it be 
dominated a long age through by sheer weight of arms 
and the arbitrary choices of self-constituted masters, by 
the nation which can maintain the biggest armies and the 5 
most irresistible armaments, — a power to which the 
world has afforded no parallel and in the face of which 
political freedom must wither and perish. 

For us there is but one choice. We have made it. Woe 
be to the man or group of men that seeks to stand in our 10 
way in this day of high resolution when every principle 
we hold dearest is to be vindicated and made secure 
for the salvation of the nations. We are ready to plead 
at the bar of history, and our flag shall wear a new lustre. 
Once more we shall make good with our lives and fortunes 15 
the great faith to which we were born, and a new glory 
shall shine in the face of our people. 



THE DELIVERERS 

By The Outlook. (1917) 

A common, if not prevalent, opinion has been that the 
only justifiable war is a war of defense. This has been 
expressed in many forms and explains many govern- 20 
mental acts. Our own entrance into the war has been 
repeatedly justified on the ground that it was necessary 
as the only effective means of defending our rights on the 
sea. One reason why France is free from the aspersions 
which have been cast on other nations on both sides of this 25 
war is that she is manifestly fighting in defense of her own 
soil. 

There is, however, a higher right than that. It is the 
right of succor, of deliverance, of rescue. 

The war which the United States is waging against Ger- 30 
many is only in part a war of self-defense. It is chiefly a 



164 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

war for the succor of oppressed peoples, for the deliverance 
of civilized lands from the hands of the barbarian, for the 
rescue of the public law of nations, and of the right of man- 
kind to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
5 As our soldiers land in France and take their places in 
the line beside the French and the English, as our sailors 
watch the seas for hostile submarines, and as our aviators 
give battle in the air, they are asserting the right of the 
American people to defend themselves, their ships, and 

i o their territory; but they are doing something more than 
that. 

They are coming to the rescue of the Belgian people, 
whose brave King refused to barter the honor of his country 
for cash, and chose rather to endure with his people un- 

is speakable suffering. 

They are coming to the rescue of France, whose treasury 
of art and whose liberty have alike been put into peril 
of destruction by a Power that is as ruthless in its 
denial of liberty as it is in its destruction of the monu- 

2oments of art. 

They are coming to the rescue of those free institutions 
of the English people which we have inherited from them 
and on which our own freedom is built. 

They are coming to the rescue of the Russian people, 

2 5 beside whom it is an honor to fight for liberty because 
they have already done so much to rescue themselves. 

They are coming to the rescue of that nation, the latest 
of the great countries of Europe to achieve its own liber- 
ation, that nation that has been called the crowned repub- 

30 lie — Italy. 

They are coming to the rescue of backward, im- 
poverished, oppressed peoples of Europe and Asia — to 
the rescue of the Serbians and Montenegrins, who chose to 
fight rather than to become vassals of an arrogant Austria ; 

35 to the rescue of the Poles, whose continued subjection is 
essential to the remnants of the old unholy Holy Alliance ; 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 165 

to the rescue of the Armenians, who have suffered at 
the hands of the brutal Turk and Kurd and from the 
designs of the more cruel, because more resourceful, 
mind of the ruthless Prussian; to the rescue of the 
Greeks from the consequences of their trust in their own 5 
faithless ruler. 

They are coming to the rescue of the fabric of the public 
law of nations — the sacred observance of treaties and of 
the principles of morality in the conduct of nations — 
which is the only fabric from which there can ever be 10 
erected permanent peace. 

And, not least of all, they are coming to the rescue of 
the peoples of the Central Empires themselves, who have 
been denied by their rulers even the knowledge of what 
civil liberty means. 15 



AN AMERICAN CREED 

By The Outlook. (1917) 

I am an American. 

I believe in the dignity of labor, the sanctity of the home, 
and the high destiny of democracy. 

Courage is my birthright, justice my ideal, and faith in 
humanity my guiding star. 20 

By the sacrifice of those who suffered that I might live, 
who died that America might endure, I pledge my life to 
my country and the liberation of mankind. 

WHY WE ARE FIGHTING GERMANY 

By Franklin K. Lane. (August, 1917) 

Why are we fighting Germany? The brief answer is 
that ours is a war of self-defense. We did not wish to 25 
fight Germany. She made the attack upon us ; not on our 



166 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

shores, but on our ships, our lives, our rights, our future. 
For two years and more we held to a neutrality that made 
us apologists for things which outraged man's common 
sense of fair play and humanity. At each new offense — 
5 the invasion of Belgium, the killing of civilian Belgians, 
the attacks on Scarborough and other defenseless towns, 
the laying of mines in neutral waters, the fencing off of the 
seas — and on and on through the months we said : "This 
is war — archaic, uncivilized war, but war ! All rules 

10 have been thrown away : all nobility ; man has come down 
to the primitive brute. And while we cannot justify we 
will not intervene. It is not our war." 

Then why are we in? Because we could not keep out. 
The invasion of Belgium which opened the war, led to the 

15 invasion of the United States by slow, steady, logical 
steps. Our sympathies evolved into a conviction of self- 
interest. Our love of fair play ripened into alarm at our 
own peril. 
We talked in the language and in the spirit of good 

20 faith and sincerity, as honest men should talk, until we 
discovered that our talk was construed as cowardice. And 
Mexico was called upon to invade us. We talked as men 
would talk who cared alone for peace and the advance- 
ment of their own material interests, until we discovered 

25 that we were thought to be a nation of mere money makers, 
devoid of all character — until, indeed, we were told that 
we could not walk the highways of the world without 
permission of a Prussian soldier ; that our ships might not 
sail without wearing a striped uniform of humiliation upon 

30 a narrow path of national subservience. We talked as 
men talk who hope for honest agreement, not for war, 
until we found that the treaty torn to pieces at Liege was 
but the symbol of a policy that made agreements worthless 
against a purpose that knew no word but success. 

35 And so we came into this war for ourselves. It is a war 
to save America — to preserve self-respect, to justify our 






AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 167 

right to live as we have lived, not as some one else wishes 
us to live. In the name of freedom we challenge with ships 
and men, money, and an undaunted spirit, that word 
" Verboten" which Germany has written upon the sea and 
upon the land. For America is not the name of so much 5 
territory. It is a living spirit, born in travail, grown in the 
rough school of bitter experiences, a living spirit which has 
purpose and pride, and conscience — knows why it wishes 
to live and to what end, knows how it comes to be respected 
of the world, and hopes to retain that respect by living on 10 
with the light of Lincoln's love of man as its Old and New 
Testament. It is more precious that this America should 
live than that we Americans should live. And this Amer- 
icans we now see, has been challenged from the first of 
this war by the strong arm of a power that has no sympathy 15 
with our purpose and will not hesitate to destroy us if the 
law that we respect, the rights that are to us sacred, or the 
spirit that we have, stand across her set will to make this 
world bow before her policies, backed by her organized and 
scientific military system. The world of Christ — a neg- 20 
lected but not a rejected Christ — has come again face 
to face with the world of Mahomet, who willed to win by 
force. 

With this background of history and in this sense, then, 
we fight Germany. 25 

Because of Belgium — invaded, outraged, enslaved, im- 
poverished Belgium. We cannot forget Liege, Lou vain, 
and Cardinal Mercier. Translated into terms of American 
history, these names stand for Bunker Hill, Lexington, 
and Patrick Henry. 30 

Because of France — invaded, desecrated France, a 
million of whose heroic sons have died to save the land of 
Lafayette. Glorious golden France, the preserver of the 
arts, the land of noble spirit — the first land to follow our 
lead into republican liberty. 35 

Because of England — from whom came the laws, tradi- 



168 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

tions, standards of life, and inherent love of liberty which 
we call Anglo-Saxon civilization. We defeated her once 
upon the land and once upon the sea. But Australia, New 
Zealand, Africa, and Canada are free because of what we 
5 did. And they are with us in the fight for the freedom of 
the seas. 

Because of Russia — New Russia. She must not be 
overwhelmed now. Not now, surely, when she is just born 
into freedom. Her peasants must have their chance ; they 

i o must go to school to Washington, to Jefferson, and to Lin- 
coln until they know their way about in this new, strange 
world of government by the popular will. 

Because of other peoples, with their rising hope that the 
world may be freed from government by the soldier. 

15 We are fighting Germany because she sought to terrorize 
us and then to fool us. We could not believe that Germany 
would do what she said she would do upon the seas. 

We still hear the piteous cries of children coming up out 
of the sea where the Lusitania went down. And Germany 

20 has never asked forgiveness of the world. 

We saw the Sussex sunk, crowded with the sons and 
daughters of neutral nations. 

We saw ship after ship sent to the bottom — ships of 
mercy bound out of America for the Belgian starving; 

25 ships carrying the Red Cross and laden with the wounded 
of all nations ; ships carrying food and clothing to friendly, 
harmless, terrorized peoples; ships flying the Stars and 
Stripes — sent to the bottom hundreds of miles from shore, 
manned by American seamen, murdered against all law, 

30 without warning. 

We believed Germany's promise that she would respect 

the neutral flag and the rights of neutrals, and we held our 

anger and outrage in check. But now we see that she was 

. holding us off with fair promises until she could build her 

35 huge fleet of submarines. For when spring came she blew 
her promise into the air, just as at the beginning she had 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 169 

torn up that '" scrap of paper." Then we saw clearly that 
there was but one law for Germany — her will to rule. 

We are righting Germany because she violated our confi- 
dence. Paid German spies rilled our cities. Officials of 
her Government, received as the guests of this Nation, 5 
lived with us to bribe and terrorize, defying our law and the 
law of nations. 

We are fighting Germany because while we were yet her 
friends — the only great power that still held hands off — 
she sent the Zimmermann note, calling to her aid Mexico, to 
our southern neighbor, and hoping to lure Japan, our west- 
ern neighbor, into war against this Nation of peace. 

The nation that would do these things proclaims the 
gospel that government has no conscience. And this doc- 
trine cannot live, or else democracy must die. For the 15 
nations of the world must keep faith. There can be no 
living for us in a world where the state has no conscience, 
no reverence for the things of the spirit, no respect for inter- 
national law, no mercy for those who fall before its force. 
What an unordered world ! Anarchy ! The anarchy of 20 
rival wolf packs ! 

We are righting Germany because in this war feudalism 
is making its last stand against on-coming democracy. 
We see it now. This is a war against an old spirit, an an- 
cient, outworn spirit. It is a war against feudalism — the 25 
right of the castle on the hill to rule the village below. It 
is a war for democracy — the right of all to be their own 
masters. Let Germany be feudal if she will, but she must 
not spread her system over the world that has outgrown 
it. Feudalism plus science, thirteenth century plus twen- 30 
tieth — this is the religion of the mistaken Germany that 
has linked itself with the Turk ; that has, too, adopted the 
method of Mahomet.. "The state has no conscience." 
"The state can do no wrong." With the spirit of the fa- 
natic she believes this gospel and that it is her duty to spread 35 
it by force. With poison gas that makes living a hell, 



170 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

with submarines that sneak through the seas to slyly mur- 
der noncombatants, with dirigibles that bombard men and 
women while they sleep, with a perfected system of terror- 
ization that the modern world first heard of when German 
5 troops entered China, German feudalism is making war 
upon mankind. Let this old spirit of evil have its way 
and no man will live in America without paying toll to it 
in manhood and money. This spirit might demand Canada 
from a defeated, navyless England, and then our dream of 

10 peace on the north would be at an end. We would live, as 
France has lived for forty years, in haunting terror. 

America speaks for the world in fighting German}'. 
Mark on a map those countries which are Germany's allies 
and you will mark but four, running from the Baltic through 

15 Austria and Bulgaria to Turkey. All the other nations 
the whole globe around are in arms against her or are 
unable to move. There is deep meaning in this. We 
fight with the world for an honest world in which nations 
keep their word, for a world in which nations do not 

20 live by swagger or by threat, for a world in which men 
think of the ways in which they can conquer the com- 
mon cruelties of nature instead of inventing more hor- 
rible cruelties to inflict upon the spirit and body of 
man, for a world in which the ambition or the philosophy 

25 of a few shall not make miserable all mankind, for a world 
in which the man is held more precious than the machine, 
the system, or the state. 

THE MONROE DOCTRINE OF THE WORLD 

By The World's Work. (November, 1917) 

There is a photograph recently published of a column 
of American soldiers crossing the Thames with the Houses 
30 of the British Parliament in the background. These sol- 
diers are part of the American Army gone to Europe to 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 171 

fight for political liberty against autocracy. The British 
Parliament is the mother of modern political liberty, and 
the larger part of its history belongs as much to those 
American troops and to the rest of us as it does to the peo- 
ple who live in England. From the time of Magna Charta 5 
in 1215 to 1775 we worked out the advance of free institu- 
tions together. Since that time we have worked them 
out separately but along parallel lines. Both nations 
have considered political liberty as the most vital tenet 
of existence and both have struggled to increase it at home 10 
and extend it abroad. Great Britain has extended a help- 
ing hand to the liberal movements in Europe, and we have, 
under the Monroe Doctrine, guaranteed the opportunity 
for the people of the Americas to develop their own insti- 
tutions free from attack by autocracy. 15 

In his celebrated pronouncement Monroe let it be known 
that any attack by autocracy on free institutions in this 
hemisphere would be met by the armed forces of the United 
States. When he told the world this decision Monroe 
knew that he could count on the cooperation of the British 20 
fleet in enforcing it. The exponents of autocracy at that 
time knew it, too. And since then every ambitious auto- 
crat has known that if he reached his hand toward the 
Western Hemisphere it meant the American Army and 
Navy in front of him and the British fleet behind him — 25 
and none has tried. 

But in 1914 the Kaiser did not know that Great Britain 
and the United States would come to the defense of polit- 
ical liberty in Europe. He thought that England would 
stay neutral. He was sure that the United States was so 30, 
afraid of entangling alliances that it would rather see him 
crush political liberty in Europe than move a hand to de- 
fend it. But he was wrong. Liberty is not an ideal that 
admits of geographical limitations, and autocracy is the 
kind of beast that must be killed in its lair if even distant 35 
regions are to be safe. But the Kaiser did not know that 



172 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

an attack on liberty in Europe meant war by all democ- 
racies. If there had been a doctrine of the immunity of 
liberty in Europe like the Monroe Doctrine here, an- 
nounced with the same vigor and supported by the same 
5 liberal forces, it is doubtful if the Kaiser would have em- 
barked on war. If after this war there is such a doctrine, 
it is doubtful if the Kaiser can have a successor. Such a 
doctrine — the common and immediate defense of polit- 
ical freedom by every liberal country — has not been 
io announced in words; but when the American troops 
passed Westminster on their way to France they set the 
seal of action on a Monroe Doctrine of the world — a 
union of the Anglo-Saxon and other liberal powers for the 
defense of democracy. 



A JUST AND GENEROUS PEACE 
By Woodrow Wilson. (1917) 

15 Gentlemen of the Congress : Eight months have 
elapsed since I last had the honor of addressing you. 
They have been months crowded with events of immense 
and grave significance for us. I shall not undertake to 
retail or even summarize those events. The practical 

20 particulars of the part we have played in them will be laid 
before you in the reports of the Executive Departments. 
I shall discuss only our present outlook upon these vast 
affairs, our present duties, and the immediate means of 
accomplishing the objects we shall hold always in view. 

25 I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The 
intolerable wrongs done and planned against us by the 
sinister masters of Germany have long since become too 
grossly obvious and odious to every true American to need 
to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider again and 

30 with a very grave scrutiny our objectives and the measures 
by which we mean to attain them ; for the purpose of dis- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 173 

cussion here in this place is action, and our action must 
move straight towards definite ends. Our object is, of 
course, to win the war ; and we shall not slacken or suffer 
ourselves to be diverted until it is won. But it is worth 
while asking and answering the question, When shall we 5. 
consider the war won? 

From one point of view it is not necessary to broach 
tfiis fundamental matter. I do not doubt that the Amer- 
ican people know what the war is about and what sort of 
an outcome they will regard as a realization of their pur- 10 
pose in it. As a nation we are united in spirit and inten- 
tion. I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I 
hear the voices of dissent, — who does not? I hear the 
criticism and the clamour of the noisily thoughtless and 
troublesome. I also see men here and there fling them- 15 
selves in impotent disloyalty against the calm, indomi- 
table power of the nation. I hear men debate peace who 
understand neither its nature nor the way in which we 
may attain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits. 
But I know that none of these speaks for the nation. 20 
They do not touch the heart of anything. They 
may safely be left to strut their uneasy hour and be 
forgotten. 

But from another point of view I believe that it is nec- 
essary to say plainly what we here at the seat of action con- 25 
sider the war to be for and what part we mean to play in 
the settlement of its searching issues. We are the spokes- 
men of the American people and they have a right to know 
whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the 
overcoming of evil, by the defeat once for all of the sinister 30 
forces that interrupt peace and render it impossible, and 
they wish to know how closely our thought runs with theirs 
and what action we propose. They are impatient with 
those who desire peace by any sort of compromise, — 
deeply and indignantly impatient, — but they will be 35 
equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them 



174 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

what our objectives are and what we are planning for in 
seeking to make conquest of peace by arms. 

I believe that I speak for them when I say two things : 
First, that this intolerable Thing of which the masters of 
5 Germany have shown us the ugly face, this menace of com- 
bined intrigue and force which we see now so clearly as the 
German power, a Thing without conscience or honor or 
capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed and, if it 
be not utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the 

10 friendly intercourse of the nations ; and, second, that when 
this thing and its power are indeed defeated and the time 
comes that we can discuss peace, — when the German 
people have spokesmen whose word we can believe and 
when those spokesmen are ready in the name of their people 

15 to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what 
shall henceforth be the bases of law and of covenant for the 
life of the world, — we shall be willing and glad to pay the 
full price for peace, and pay it ungrudgingly. We know 
what that price will be. It will be full, impartial justice, — 

20 justice done at every point and to every nation that the 
final settlement must affect, our enemies as well as our 
friends. 

You catch, with me, the voices of humanity that are in 
the air. They grow daily more audible, more articulate, 

25 more persuasive, and they come from the hearts of men 
everywhere. They insist that the war shall not end in 
vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or people 
shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible rulers 
of a single country have themselves done deep and abom- 

30 inable wrong. It is this thought that has been expressed in 
the formula "No annexations, no contributions, no punitive 
indemnities." Just because this crude formula expresses 
the instinctive judgment as to right of plain men every- 
where it has been made diligent use of by the masters of 

35 German intrigue to lead the people of Russia astray — and 
the people of every other country their agents could reach, 



AMEBIC AN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 175 

in order that a premature peace might be brought about 
before autocracy has been taught its final and convincing 
lesson, and the people of the world put in control of their 
own destinies. 

But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just 5 
idea is no reason why a right use should not be made of it. 
It ought to be brought under the patronage of its real 
friends. Let it be said again that autocracy must first be 
shown the utter futility of its claims to power or leadership 
in the modern world. It is impossible to apply any stand- 10 
ard of justice so long as such forces are unchecked and 
undefeated as the present masters of Germany command. 
Not until that has been done can Right be set up as arbiter 
and peace-maker among the nations. But when that has 
been done, — as, God willing, it assuredly will be, — we 15 
shall at last be free to do an unprecedented thing, and this 
is the time to avow our purpose to do it. We shall be free 
to base peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusion of 
all selfish claims to advantage even on the part of the victors. 

Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and 20 
immediate task is to win the war, and nothing shall turn 
us aside from it until it is accomplished. Every power 
and resource we possess, whether of men, of money, or of 
materials, is being devoted and will continue to be devoted 
to that purpose until it is achieved. Those who desire to 25 
bring peace about before that purpose is achieved I counsel 
to carry their advice elsewhere. We will not entertain it. 
We shall regard the war as won only when the German peo- 
ple say to us, through properly accredited representatives, 
that they are ready to agree to a settlement based upon jus- 30 
tice and the reparation of the wrongs their rulers have done. 
They have done a wrong to Belgium which must be re- 
paired. They have established a power over other lands 
and peoples than their own, — over the great Empire of 
Austria-Hungary, over hitherto free Balkan states, over 35 
Turkey, and within Asia, — which must be relinquished. 



176 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Germany's success by skill, by industry, by knowledge, 
by enterprise we did not grudge or oppose, but admired, 
rather. She had built up for herself a real empire of trade 
and influence, secured by the peace of the world. We were 
5 content to abide the rivalries of manufacture, science, and 
commerce that were involved for us in her success and 
stand or fall as we had or did not have the brains and the 
initiative to surpass her. But at the moment when she 
had conspicuously won her triumphs of peace she threw 

i o them away, to establish in their stead what the world will 
no longer permit to be established, military and political 
domination by arms, by which to oust where she could not 
excel the rivals she most feared and hated. The peace 
we make must remedy that wrong. It must deliver the 

15 once fair lands and happ3 r peoples of Belgium and north- 
ern France from the Prussian conquest and the Prussian 
menace, but it must also deliver the peoples of Austria- 
Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans, and the peoples of 
Turkey, alike in Europe and in Asia, from the impudent 

20 and alien dominion of the Prussian military and commercial 
autocracy. 

We owe it, however, to ourselves to say that we do not 
wish in any way to impair or to rearrange the Austro- 
Hungarian Empire. It is no affair of ours what they do 

25 with their own life, either industrially or politically. We 
do not purpose or desire to dictate to them in any way. 
We only desire to see that their affairs are left in their own 
hands, in all matters, great or small. We shall hope to 
secure for the peoples of the Balkan peninsula and for the 

30 people of the Turkish Empire the right and opportunity to 
make their own lives safe, their own fortunes secure against 
oppression or injustice and from the dictation of foreign 
courts or parties. 

And our attitude and purpose with regard to Germany 

3$ herself are of a like kind. We intend no wrong against the 
German Empire, no interference with her internal affairs. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 111 

We should deem either the one or the other absolutely un- 
justifiable, absolutely contrary to the principles we have 
professed to live by and to hold most sacred throughout 
our life as a nation. 

The people of Germany are being told by the men whom 5 
they now permit to deceive them and to act as their mas- 
ters that they are fighting for the very life and existence 
of their Empire, a war of desperate self-defense against 
deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly or 
wantonly false, and we must seek by the utmost openness 10 
and candor as to our real aims to convince them of its 
falseness. We are in fact fighting for their emancipation 
from fear, along with our own, — from the fear as well as 
from the fact of unjust attack by neighbors or rivals or 
schemers after world empire. No one is threatening the 15 
existence or the independence or the peaceful enterprise of 
the German Empire. 

The worst that can happen to the detriment of the Ger- 
man people is this, that if they should still, after the war is 
over, continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and 20 
intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the 
world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of 
the world could not trust, it might be impossible to admit 
them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth 
guarantee the world's peace. That partnership must be a 25 
partnership of peoples, not a mere partnership of govern- 
ments. It might be impossible, also, in such untoward 
circumstances, to admit Germany to the free economic 
intercourse which must inevitably spring out of .the other 
partnerships of a real peace. But there would be no ag- 30 
gression in that ; and such a situation, inevitable because 
of distrust, would in the very nature of things sooner or 
later cure itself, by processes which would assuredly set in. 

The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war 
will have to be righted. That of course. But they can not 35 
and must not be righted by the commission of similar wrongs 

N 



178 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

against Germany and her allies. The world will not per- 
mit the commission of similar wrongs as a means of repara- 
tion and settlement. Statesmen must by this time have 
learned that the opinion of the world is everywhere wide 
5 awake and fully comprehends the issues involved. Xo 
representative of any self -governed nation will dare disre- 
gard it by attempting any such covenants of selfishness and 
compromise as were entered into at the Congress of Vienna. 
The thought of the plain people here and everywhere 

i o throughout the world, the people who enjoy no privilege 
and have very simple and unsophisticated standards of 
right and wrong, is the air all governments must henceforth 
breathe if they w^ould live. It is in the full disclosing light 
of that thought that all policies must be conceived and 

15 executed in this midday hour of the world's life. German 
rulers have been able to upset the peace of the world only 
because the German people were not suffered under their 
tutelage to share the comradeship of the other peoples of 
the world either in thought or in purpose. They were 

20 allowed to have no opinion of their own which might be set 
up as a rule of conduct for those who exercised authority 
over them. But the Congress that concludes this war 
will feel the full strength of the tides that run now in the 

' hearts and consciences of free men everywhere. Its con- 

25 elusions will run with those tides. 

All these things have been true from the very beginning 
of this stupendous war ; and I can not help thinking that if 
they had been made plain at the very outset the sympathy 
and enthusiasm of the Russian people might have been 

30 once for all enlisted on the side of the Allies, suspicion and 
distrust swept away, and a real and lasting union of purpose 
effected. Had they believed these things at the very mo- 
ment of their revolution and had they been confirmed in 
that belief since, the sad reverses which have recently 

35 marked the progress of their affairs towards an ordered and 
stable government of free men might have been avoided. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 179 

The Russian people have been poisoned by the very same 
falsehoods that have kept the German people in the dark, 
and the poison has been administered by the very same 
hands. The only possible antidote is the truth. It can not 
be uttered too plainly or too often. 5 

From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed to be 
my duty to speak these declarations of purpose, to add 
these specific interpretations to what I took the liberty of 
saying to the Senate in January. Our entrance into the 
war has not altered our attitude towards the settlement 10 
that must come when it is over. When I said in January 
that the nations of the world were entitled not only to free 
pathways upon the sea but also to assured and unmolested 
access to those pathways I was thinking, and I am thinking 
now, not of the smaller and weaker nations alone, which 1 5 
need our countenance and support, but also of the great 
and powerful nations, and of our present enemies as well as 
our present associates in the war. I was thinking, and 
am thinking now, of Austria herself, among the rest, as 
well as of Serbia and of Poland. Justice and equality of 20 
rights can be had only at a great price. We are seeking 
permanent, not temporary, foundations for the peace of 
the world and must seek them candidly and fearlessly. As 
always, the right will prove to be the expedient. 

What shall we do, then, to push this great war of freedom 25 
and justice to its righteous conclusion? We must clear 
away with a thorough hand all impediments to success and 
we must make every adjustment of law that will facilitate 
the full and free use of our whole capacity and force as a 
righting unit. 30 

One very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is 
that we are at war with Germany but not with her allies. 
I therefore very earnestly recommend that the Congress 
immediately declare the United States in a state of war 
with Austria-Hungary. Does it seem strange to you that 35 
this should be the conclusion of the argument I have just 



180 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IX PROSE AND VERSE 

addressed to you? It is not. It is in fact the inevitable 
logic of what I have said. Austria-Hungary is for the time 
being not her own mistress but simply the vassal of the 
German Government. We must face the facts as they 
5 are and act upon them without sentiment in this stern 
business. The government of Austria-Hungary is not 
acting upon its own initiative or in response to the wishes 
and feelings of its own peoples but as the instrument of 
another nation. We must meet its force with our own 

ioand regard the Central Powers as but one. The war can 
be successfully conducted in no other way. The same 
logic would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey 
and Bulgaria. They also are the tools of Germany. But 
they are mere tools and do not yet stand in the direct path 

15 of our necessary action. We shall go wherever the neces- 
sities of this war carry us, but it seems to me that we should 
go only where immediate and practical considerations lead 
us and not heed any others. 

We can do this with all the greater zeal and enthusiasm 

20 because we know that for us this is a war of high principle, 
debased by no selfish ambition of conquest or spoliation ; 
because we know, and all the world knows, that we have 
been forced into it to save the very institutions we live 
under from corruption and destruction. The purposes of 

25 the Central Powers strike straight at the very heart of 
everything we believe in ; their methods of warfare outrage 
every principle of humanity and of knightly honor ; their 
intrigue has corrupted the very thought and spirit of many 
of our people; their sinister and secret diplomacy has 

30 sought to take our very territory away from us and disrupt 
the Union of the States. Our safety would be at an end, 
our honor forever sullied and brought into contempt were 
we to permit their triumph. They are striking at the very 
existence of democracy and liberty. 

35 It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested pur- 
pose, in which all the free peoples of the w T orld are banded 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 181 

together for the vindication of right, a war for the preserva- 
tion of our nation and of all that it has held dear of principle 
and of purpose, that we feel ourselves doubly constrained 
to propose for its outcome only that which is righteous and 
of irreproachable intention, for our foes as well as for our 5 
friends. The cause being just and holy, the settlement 
must be of like motive and quality. For this we can fight, 
but for nothing less noble or less worthy of our traditions. 
For this cause we entered the war and for this cause will we 
battle until the last gun is fired. 10 

I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time 
when it is most necessary to speak plainly, in order that all 
the world may know that even in the heat and ardor of 
the struggle and when our whole thought is of carrying the 
war through to its end we have not forgotten any ideal or 1 5 
principle for which the name of America has been held in 
honor among the nations and for which it has been our 
glory to contend in the great generations that went before 
us. A supreme moment of history has come. The eyes of 
the people have been opened and they see. The hand of 20 
God is laid upon the nations. He will show them favor, 
I devoutly believe, only if they rise to the clear heights of 
His own justice and mercy. 



PEACE 

By Nicholas Murray Butler. (1917) 

Peace is not an ideal at all ; it is a state attendant upon 
the achievement of an ideal. The ideal itself is human 25 
liberty, justice, and the honorable conduct of an orderly 
and humane society. Given this, a durable peace follows 
naturally as a matter of course. Without this, there is no 
peace, but only a rule of force until liberty and justice re- 
volt against it in search of peace. 30 



182 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE TO 

LIVE IN 

By The World's Work. (January, 1918) 

11 Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and 
immediate task is to win the war, and nothing shall turn 
us aside from it until it is accomplished. Every power 
and resource we possess, whether of men, of money, or 
5 of materials, is being devoted and will continue to be de- 
voted to that purpose until it is achieved. Those who 
desire to bring peace about before that purpose is achieved, 
I counsel to carry their advice elsewhere. We will not 
entertain it." 

io This paragraph was the heart of the President's mes- 
sage. It is a simple fact and is told quickly, but its sig- 
nificance is not measured by its length. And the Presi- 
dent's pledge of our determination to fight the war through 
is given added weight by the declaration of war against 

15 Austria-Hungary. 

In a large part of the message the President restated our 
aims in the war, our insistence that Germany "repair," 
as the President phrases it, the damage she has done, and 
on the other hand our denial of any intention of exacting 

2 o indemnities in a spirit of revenge. It is well to keep our 
motives clear before our Allies and ourselves. But it 
cannot very much affect what Germany will pay. If she 
repairs even part of the damage she has done wantonly, 
purposely, and contrary to the rules of war to Belgium, 

25 to northern France, to Serbia, there will not be left the 
power to pay any indemnity, except of course in territory 
and people. But none of the Allies in their bitterest 
moments have ever wanted to incorporate territory peopled 
by Germans within their borders. The land and the 

30 people of Germany must remain. Its ambitions and 
kultur must go, and the German people must expiate the 



• 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 183 

crimes which they have committed by restoring the coun- 
tries which they have wrecked in so far as it is humanly 
possible. There is little likelihood that they will do this 
until they are forced to do so, and that is why we are 
faced with the necessity of gaining a military decision, 5 
which is but a pleasanter way of saying that we must kill, 
capture, or disperse the German armies until they can no 
longer fight. 

When this is done the Germans will all know that the 
Kaiser and his system have failed them. The legend of 10 
German invincibility will be gone. The precedent of 1864, 
1866, 1870-71 will be shattered. The German hold on 
Austria, the Balkans, and Turkey will be broken. There 
will be no opportunity for another attack on civilization. 
The world will, for the time anyway, be free from the 15 
menace of the German ideal of blood and iron and have an 
opportunity to begin again, in peace, the effort to perfect 
social and political systems designed to give all men a 
chance for mental and material well-being and advance- 
ment — to begin again the everlasting and all-important 20 
task of trying to make the world a better place to live in. 



NATIONAL UNITY 

By Nicholas Murray Butler. (February 16, 1918) 

As the result of nearly a century and a half of develop- 
ment and of a Civil War which absorbed the entire ener- 
gies of the people through four long years, the govern- 
mental and the geographic unity of the United States are 25 
secure. It is not by any means so clear that there is a 
corresponding unity of spirit, of purpose and of ideals 
among the American people themselves. Those differ- 
ences among men which separate them into political 
parties, having different policies but a common point of 30 
departure and a common goal, are merely incidental and 



184 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

strengthen rather than weaken national unity. If on 
the other hand there are within the nation forces and 
tendencies making for conflicts and antagonisms as to 
the fundamental purposes for which the nation and its 
5 government exist, then there is something to be done and 
that right away. 

The war has brought clearly to view the fact that na- 
tional unity is endangered, not only by illiteracy, which 
fact has long been recognized, but by diversity of language 

i o with its resulting lack of complete understanding and co- 
operation. No country can have a homogeneous or a safe 
basis for its public opinion and its institutions unless these 
rest upon the foundation of a single language. To protect 
the national unity and security, no American community 

15 should be permitted to substitute any other language for 
English as the basis or instrument of common school edu- 
cation. Wherever another language has been introduced 
into the common schools, whether for conscious propaganda 
or otherwise, it should be ruthlessly stamped out as a 

20 wrong against our national unity and our national in- 
tegrity. 

No time should be lost in making adequate provision to 
teach English to those adult immigrants who are beyond 
the reach of the element ar} r school and yet have cast in 

25 their lot with the people of the United States. A knowl- 
edge of the English language, and evidence of some real 
understanding of the history and meaning of our institu- 
tions, should be required before the privilege of suffrage is 
conferred upon one who has grown up in another civihza- 

sotion than ours and under another flag than the Stars and 
Stripes. Public safety is the supreme law, and public 
safety requires that the safeguarding and the improve- 
ment of our institutions be not committed to those who 
have had no opportunity to gain knowledge of them or to 

35 gain sympatic with them. 

A still more subtle enemy of the American democracy 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 185 

is the wide-spread teaching that there is and should be a 
class struggle between those who have little and those who 
have more, between those who work with their hands and 
those who work in other ways. The notion of fixed eco- 
nomic classes that are at war with each other is in flat con- 5 
tradiction to the principles and ideals of democracy. The 
doctrine of a class conflict was made in Germany, and it 
represents a notion of social and political organization 
wholly at variance with the principles and conditions of 
our American fife. In this country we have no fixed 10 
economic classes and we desire none. The handworker for 
wages of today is the* employer of tomorrow, and the door 
of opportunity is so wide open that he who begins in indus- 
trial, commercial, or financial service at the bottom of the 
ladder may by competence and character speedily climb to 15 
its very top. Those who teach the justice and the neces- 
sity of a class struggle are not believers in democracy. 
They do not wish to lift all men up ; they are bent upon 
pulling some men down. Their program is one of destruc- 
tion not construction, of reaction not progress. They do 20 
not believe in the equality of men before the law and in 
the equality of opportunity for all men and all women; 
they believe in a cruel, relentless, exploiting class. In 
other words, they believe in privilege and not in free gov- 
ernment. Class consciousness and democracy are mutu- 25 
ally exclusive. Its logical and necessary result would be 
to tear up the Declaration of Independence, to destroy 
the Constitution of the United States, and to put in their 
stead a Charter of Bedlam under whose provisions might, 
and might alone, would make right. Every movement 30 
and every effort to this end should be challenged peremp- 
torily in the name of the American people, their traditions, 
and their ideals. It is as vitally important to oppose 
autocracy in this form as when it comes clad in imperial 
robes and accompanied with all the instruments of mill- 35 
tarism. 



186 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 



NATIONAL TRAINING FOR NATIONAL 
SERVICE ° 

By Nicholas Murray Butler. (February 16, 1918) 

The unpreparedness of America alike for war and for 
peace is now obvious to everybody. It calls upon us to 
establish without delay a well-ordered system of national 
training for national service. In no other way can the 
5 youth of the nation be instructed and disciplined for pur- 
poses of national defense, or imbued with a spirit of na- 
tional devotion that will break down all limitations of race 
origin, of language, and of local patriotism, or given an 
adequate chance to fit themselves for useful and productive 

i o life work in truly democratic fashion. It has long been the 
policy of the several States to protect themselves and their 
citizens from the evils and the dangers that are character- 
istic of illiteracy and that accompany lack of intellectual 
and moral discipline, by requiring attendance upon the 

1 5 elementary school for a definitely prescribed period. In 
this same spirit and on similar grounds, the nation should 
now say to each youth approaching manhood that, for part 
of one year or of two successive years, he must submit him- 
self for a definite period to instruction and training under 

20 direct national supervision and control, in order that three 
distinct purposes may be accomplished — first, that he 
may, in association with youth of like age, get a new and 
vivid sense of the meaning and obligations of citizenship ; 
second, that he may be physically and intellectually pre- 

25 pared to take part in his country's service or his country's 
defense should occasion ever arise ; third, that specific 
direction may be given to his capacities and powers, so 
that he may be better prepared than would otherwise be 
the case for useful and productive citizenship. If it be 

30 objected that this is too large a task, the answer is that it 
involves the training in any one year of only about as 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 187 

many individuals as are now annually enrolled in the pub- 
lic school systems of New York and Chicago and that the 
nation's security depends upon its accomplishment. 

The first of these aims involves the building of the na- 
tion, strong and firm, out of the many divergent elements 5 
that have now entered into its composition, particularly in 
the large cities and on the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. 
A call to citizenship so direct and so imperative would in 
most cases quite outweigh the prejudices and preposses- 
sions that alien birth or alien sympathies may have ere- 10 
ated. The second of these aims would, when accomplished, 
provide us with a trained citizen soldiery similar to that of 
Switzerland, without any large standing army, without 
any militaristic spirit or ambitions, and without interrupt- 
ing, save to its advantage, the ordinary course of a young 1 5 
man's preparation and entrance upon the active duties of 
life. The third of these aims would be a powerful contri- 
bution to the world-wide problem of vocational training. 
It would fit men to do better that for which they have 
natural capacity, and it would multiply the economic 20 
power of the nation. 

It seems an entirely safe prediction that were this sys- 
tem established, its advantages would be so obvious and 
so direct that there would be a quick demand to make 
similar provision for the national training of young women 25 
as well. 

The nation has just expended tens of millions of dollars 
in the building of cantonments in different parts of the 
country. These cantonments are now the homes of the 
hundreds of thousands of citizen soldiers who are being 30 
prepared to take their part in the war. Why should not 
these cantonments be made permanent ? Why should not * 
the money expended upon them be made continuously 
productive by using these camps for the training of the 
youth of the. land for national service during a portion of 35. 
each year? 



188 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

When the war shall end, the governments will be faced 
b}' the problems of demobilization. It has been estimated 
that there are now thirty-five million men under arms. 
The task of demobilizing these unprecedented armies and 
5 of returning their members to industrial, to commercial, 
and to professional life will be far more serious than has 
been the task of their mobilization, and fraught with 
even graver economic and political dangers and perils. 
Might it not be possible to have the American national 

i o army demobilized by a process just the reverse of that 
by which it has been brought together? Might not the 
returning armies be brought back to the national can- 
tonments before being disbanded, in order that then and 
there those soldiers who were found to need assistance or 

1 5 further training might receive it before being cast as dere- 
licts upon society ? In these several cantonments it would 
be quite practicable to install the necessary equipment for 
training men in at least some of those numerous trades 
and occupations that are necessary to the support of 

20 armies. It has been estimated that there are nearly two 
hundred such trades and occupations. A few months, or 
even a few weeks, of instruction bestowed upon these men 
when the time of demobilization comes, might easily save 
them and the nation itself incalculable suffering and loss 

25 later on. The example of France shows what beneficent 

arrangements may be made, through an undertaking of 

this kind, to render self-supporting many of those who 

have been grievously wounded or maimed in the war. 

The American people will be slow to accept a plan of 

30 national training for national sendee if it is presented 
solely from the military point of view, because, offered 
in that way, it runs counter to the deep convictions of 
many persons. If, on the other hand, it is presented from 
this larger, more constructive, and more catholic point of 

ss view, it will, perhaps, commend itself to those men and 
women of our land who long to see the nation still more 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 189 

completely unified in spirit, in purpose, and in loyalty, and 
who look with dismay upon the large number of youth who 
drift every year into the active work of life without either 
adequate or specific preparation and with no notion of 
their national obligations. It may be questioned whether 5 
any single step in advance more helpful than this could be 
taken by our government at the present time. 

THE NEWSPAPER 

By Professor F. N. Scott. (March 6, 1918) 

Mirror of the public mind; interpreter of the public 
intent ; troubler of the public conscience. 

Reflector of every human interest ; furtherer of every 10 
righteous cause ; encourager of every generous act. 

Bearer of intelligence ; dispeller of ignorance and 
prejudice ; a light shining into all dark places. 

Promoter of civic welfare and civic pride ; bond of civic 
unity; protector of civic rights. 15 

Scourge of evil doers ; exposer of secret iniquities ; un- 
relenting foe of privilege and corruption. 

Voice of the lowly and oppressed; advocate of the 
friendless ; righter of private and public wrongs. 

Chronicler of facts ; sifter of rumors and opinions ; 20 
minister of the truth that makes men free. 

Reporter of the new; remembrancer of the old and 
tried ; herald of what is to come. 

Defender of civil liberty; strengthener of loyalty; 
pillar and stay of democratic government. 25 

Upbuilder of the home; nourisher of the community 
spirit ; art, letters, and science of the common people. 

[These are set forth as the ideals of an American news- 
paper. 
Why not the ideals of every American citizen? 30 

The editor.] 



190 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

" FORCE TO THE UTMOST" 

By Woodrow Wilson. (April 6, 1918) 

Fellow Citizens: This is the anniversary of our 
acceptance of Germany's challenge to fight for our right 
to live and be free, and for the sacred rights of free men 
everywhere. The Nation is awake. There is no need 
s to call to it. We know what the war must cost, our ut- 
most sacrifice, the lives of our fittest men and, if need be, 
all that we possess. The loan we are met to discuss is 
one of the least parts of what we are called upon to give 
and to do, though in itself imperative. The people, of 

iothe whole country are alive to the necessity of it, and are 
ready to lend to the utmost, even where it involves a sharp 
skimping and daily sacrifice to lend out of meagre earn- 
ings. They wall look with reprobation and contempt 
upon those who can and will not, upon those who de- 

i s mand a higher rate of interest, upon those who think of 

it as a mere commercial transaction. I have not come, 

therefore, to urge the loan. I have come only to give you, 

if I can, a more vivid conception of what it is for. 

The reasons for this great war, the reason why it had 

2oto come, the need to fight it through, and the issues that 
hang upon its outcome, are more clearly disclosed now 
than ever before. It is easy to see just what this par- 
ticular loan means because the Cause we are fighting for 
stands more sharply revealed than at any previous crisis 

2 5 of the momentous struggle. The man who knows least 
can now see plainly how the cause of Justice stands and 
what the imperishable thing is he is asked to invest in . 
Men in America may be more sure than they ever were 
before that the cause is their own, and that, if it should be 

30 lost, their own great Nation's place and mission in the 
world would be lost with it. 

I call you to witness, my fellow countrymen, that at 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 191 



no stage of this terrible business have I judged the purposes 
of Germany intemperately. I should be ashamed in the 
presence of affairs so grave, so fraught with the destinies 
of mankind throughout all the world, to speak with 
truculence, to use the weak language of hatred or vin- 5 
dictive purpose. We must judge as we would be judged. 
I have sought to learn the objects Germany has in this 
war from the mouths of her own spokesmen, and to deal 
as frankly with them as I wished them to deal with me. 
I have laid bare our own ideals, our own purposes, without 10 
reserve or doubtful phrase, and have asked them to say 
as plainly what it is that they seek. 

We have ourselves proposed no injustice, no aggres- 
sion. We are ready, whenever the final reckoning is 
made, to be just to the German people, deal fairly with 15 
the German power, as with all others. There can be no 
difference between peoples in the final judgment, if it is 
indeed to be a righteous judgment. To propose anything 
but justice, even-handed and dispassionate justice, to 
Germany at any time, whatever the outcome of the war, 20 
would be to renounce and dishonor our own cause. For 
we ask nothing that we are not willing to accord. 

It has been with this thought that I have sought to 
learn from those who spoke for Germany whether it 
was justice or dominion and the execution of their own 25 
will upon the other nations of the world that the German 
leaders were seeking. They have answered, answered 
in unmistakable terms. They have avowed that it was 
not justice but dominion and the unhindered execution 
of their own will. 30 

The avowal has not come from Germany's states- 
men. It has come from her military leaders, who are 
her real rulers. Her statesmen have said that they wished 
peace, and were ready to discuss its terms whenever their 
opponents were willing to sit down at the conference 35 
table with them. Her present Chancellor has said, — 



192 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

in indefinite and uncertain terms, indeed, and in phrases 
that often seem to deny their own meaning, but with as 
much plainness as he thought prudent, — that he be- 
lieved that peace should be based upon the principles 
5 which we had declared would be our own in the final 
settlement. At Brest-Litovsk her civilian delegates 
spoke in similar terms ; professed their desire to conclude 
a fair peace and accord to the peoples with whose fortunes 
they were dealing the right to choose their own alle- 

iogiances. But action accompanied and followed the pro- 
fession. Their military masters, the men who act for Ger- 
many and exhibit her purpose in execution, proclaimed 
a very different conclusion. We cannot mistake what 
they have done, — in Russia, in Finland, in the Ukraine, 

is in Roumania. The real test of their justice and fair play 
has come.. From this we may judge the rest. They are 
enjoying in Russia a cheap triumph in which no brave or 
gallant nation can long take pride. A great people, help- 
less by their own act, lies for the time at their mercy. 

20 Their fair professions are forgotten. They nowhere set 
up justice, but everywhere impose their power and exploit 
everything for their own use and aggrandizement and 
the peoples of conquered provinces are invited to be free 
under their dominion ! 

25 Are we not justified in believing that they would do 
the same things at their western front if they were not 
there face to face with armies whom even their countless 
divisions cannot overcome? If, when they have felt 
their check to be final, they should propose favorable 

30 and equitable terms with regard to Belgium and France 
and Italy, could they blame us if we concluded that they 
did so only to assure themselves of a free hand in Russia 
and the East ? 

Their purpose is undoubtedly to make all the Slavic 

35 peoples, all the free and ambitious nations of the Baltic 
peninsula, all the lands that Turkey has dominated and 






AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 193 

misruled, subject to their will and ambition and build 
upon that dominion an empire of force upon which they 
fancy that they can then erect an empire of gain and 
commercial supremacy, — an empire as hostile to the 
Americas as to the Europe which it will overawe, — an 5 
empire which will ultimately master Persia, India, and 
the peoples of the Far East. In such a programme our 
ideals, the ideals of justice and humanity and liberty, the 
principle of the free self-determination of nations upon 
which all the modern world insists, can play no part. 10 
They are rejected for the ideals of power, for the prin- 
ciple that the strong must rule the weak, that trade must 
follow the flag, whether those to whom it is taken welcome 
it or not, that the peoples of the world are to be made 
subject to the patronage and overlordship of those who 15 
have the power to enforce it. 

That programme once carried out, America and all 
who care or dare to stand with her must arm and pre- 
pare themselves to contest the mastery of the World, a 
mastery in which the rights of common men, the rights of 20 
women and of all who are weak, must for the time being 
be trodden under foot and disregarded, and the old age- 
long struggle for freedom and right begin again at its 
beginning. Everything that America has lived for and 
loved and grown great to vindicate and bring to a glorious 25 
realization will have fallen in utter ruin and the gates of 
mercy once more pitilessly shut upon mankind ! 

The thing is preposterous and impossible; and yet 
is not that what the whole course and action of the Ger- 
man armies has meant wherever they have moved? I 30 
do not wish, even in this moment of utter disillusionment, 
to judge harshly or unrighteously. I judge only what 
the German arms have accomplished with unpitying 
thoroughness throughout every fair region they have 
touched. 35 

What, then, are we to do? For myself, I am ready, 



194 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

ready still, ready even now, to discuss a fair and just and 
honest peace at any time that it is sincerely purposed, — 
a peace in which the strong and the weak shall fare alike. 
But the answer, when I proposed such a peace, came from 
5 the German commanders in Russia, and I cannot mistake 
the meaning of the answer. 

I accept the challenge. I know that you accept it. 
All the world shall know that you accept it. It shall 
appear in the utter sacrifice and self-forgetfulness with 

i o which we shall give all that we love and all that we have 
to redeem the world and make it fit for free men like our- 
selves to live in. This now is the meaning of all that we 
do. Let everything that we say, my fellow countrymen, 
everything that we henceforth plan and accomplish, ring 

15 true to this response till the majesty and might of our 
concerted power shall fill the thought and utterly defeat 
the force of those who flout and misprize what we honor 
and hold dear. Germany has once more said that force, 
and force alone, shall decide whether Justice and peace 

20 shall reign in the affairs of men, whether Right as America 
conceives it or Dominion as she conceives it shall de- 
termine the destinies of mankind. There is, therefore, 
but one response possible from us. Force, Force to the 
utmost, Force without stint or limit, the righteous and 

25 triumphant Force which shall make Right the law of the 
world, and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust. 



THE AMERICAN'S CREED 

By William Tyler Page. (April 6, 1918) 

I believe in the United States of America as a govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, for the people, whose 
just powers are derived from the consent of the gov- 
30 erned ; a democracy in a Republic ; a sovereign Nation 
of many sovereign States : a perfect Union, one and in- 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 195 

separable ; established upon those principles of freedom, 
equality, justice, and humanity for which American pa- 
triots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. 

I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love 
it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect 5 
its flag, and to defend it against all enemies 

" GASSING" THE WORLD'S MIND ° 

WHAT A FATHER TOLD HIS SON 
By William T. Ellis. (April 24, 1918) 

My dear Son : Perhaps, recalling the many speeches 
you have heard me make upon America's duty to the 
whole world and the perils of our provincialism, you will 
think it strange that I put first the danger to civilization 10 
from the current "internationalism." I can imagine 
what your radical young professor of social science would 
say to my indictment ! But he lives in a world of books, 
and I have just come out of Russia. He knows the 
theory; I know the thing. And this cult of "inter- 15 
nationalism/' which is sweeping sentimentalists in many 
lands away from whatever moorings they once had, is, 
bluntly, a worse menace to the whole world's welfare 
than Prussianism itself. 

It is an attempt to reduce all integers to ciphers and 20 
then add them up and find the sum of perfection. 

It hopes to make everybody a nobody, and then sud- 
denly produce the perfect man and the perfect state. 

Do you remember that passage in one of Stevenson's 
essays wherein he describes the thrifty Scotch grocer who, 25 
at a sale, bought a job lot of odds and ends of liquors and 
then poured them into a common vat? When asked 
what he was making, he replied that he did not rightly 
know, but he thought it would turn out port ! So your 
"internationalists" think they can mix good and bad, 30 



196 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

ripe and green, black and yellow, white and brown, old 
and new, educated and ignorant, and out of all this queer 
commingling get a newer, higher order of being ! 

In America these sentimentalists are fond of quoting 
5 the Bible verse which says that God has "made of one 
blood all nations ... of the earth/' forgetting that the 
same verse continues, "And hath determined aforetime 
the bounds of their habitation." The big fact of the entire 
Bible misses them — namely, that it is a book of a Chosen 

i o People. Providence did its best by the whole world by 
doing its best by one peculiar nation. 

It was in Russia, which is fairly rotten with this specious 
idea, that I came to see clearly that "internationalism " 
is fundamental a vast disloyalty. It breaks old alle- 

15 giances and offers none that are new or better. For up to 
date the only wa} f a man can be loyal to the race as a 
whole is by loyalty to that section of it of which he is a 
part. In life, as in mathematics, the whole is but equal 
to the sum of its parts ; and if certain of our present-day 

20 reformers would give over trying to transform the universe 
and confine themselves to effecting some substantial im- 
provement in that innnitesimal fragment of it which 
lives within their own clothes, they would have a task more 
commensurate with their powers and likelier to promote 

25 the general result desired. Have you noticed how rel- 
atively few of the very vocal makers-over of the world 
have achieved personalities for themselves? How much 
greater service was done for his generation by such men 
as your dear old doctor grandfather, who never preached 

30 a word, but lived a life and did a work and stood fast for 
honor and died like a gentleman and a patriot? "Inter- 
nationalism" as I noticed it in Russia was, wittingly or 
unwittingly, only a cloak for mental and moral laziness. 
It meant a repudiation of clear and tangible and undoubted 

35 obligations to the people of the country and to its national 
allies. These poor dreamers acted as if they thought 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 197 

that they could build up humanity by wrecking Russia. 
If I am not mistaken, it wall yet prove the greatest dis- 
service ever done by one nation to the whole world. While 
it may be only the mist that precedes the sunrise, I very 
much fear that it is a fog of death. 5 

So for you, my boy, I prescribe patriotism — passionate, 
pulsing, purposeful patriotism. Be sure that every atom 
you contribute to the well-being of America is the most 
direct service you can render to the human race as a 
whole. Every brick built into her walls is like a founda- 10 
tion stone for the entire world. Whatever you do to help 
your country to fulfill her highest destiny is the straightest 
contribution you can make to the well-being of mankind. 
And any act of recreancy to America is black disloyalty 
to all the little peoples and weak peoples who are leaning 1 5 
upon her for support and guidance. As one who has 
traveled over more of this earth's surface than most men, 
I solemnly declare to you, my son, that the best inter- 
nationalist to-day is the true American. Even in this 
immediate matter of the Germans, the men who are 20 
facing them in the trenches are truer friends of Germany 
than the muddy-minded Russians who have been frat- 
ernizing with them instead of fighting them. 

Seriously as I believe that this perverted doctrine of 
" internationalism" is a poison gas, so also am I con- 25 
vinced, in the second place, that the prevalent hysteria 
about the destruction of life as the supreme ill is born of 
materialism. There is no denying that up until this 
year, at least, modern America had become a coddler of 
the carcass. Mere prolongation of physical existence had 30 
come to be accepted as the supreme boon. Pain was the 
king of terrors. Suffering was more odious than sin. 
Our writers and speakers vied with one another in paint- 
ing the horrors of war and the terrors of death. Destruc- 
tion of life was held to be the most dreadful of evils. 35 
" Safety first " had become a National slogan, echoed from 



198 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

the souls of the timorous and the body-loving. This 
dangerous doctrine was as poison in the system of the 
people. 

I throw down the challenge to that theory. Better — 

5 far, far better — is it that three-fourths of the race should 
perish than that all should live in cowardice and corrup- 
tion of spirit. There are a thousand worse fates than 
being dead. Why is it that in all of big Russia the one 
element of hope, the one steadfast and loyal group, are 

iothe Cossacks, who despise life as a prize and covet a war- 
rior's death? Is it not the death-defying soul of France 
that has made her the hero nation of this war? One of 
the blessings of the peace which lies ahead of us is that we 
shall rebreed from a race of men who have subordinated 

1 5 the body and have jauntily flung it over the top into the 
teeth of destruction. If I at all understand the genius 
of the Christian religion, it is the spirit of the Cross, which 
represents the free and lavish offering up of the most 
precious Life for the sake of love and loyalty and righteous- 

2oness. There is no need for me to tell you, what you al- 
ready know, that I would rather see you dead than a 
cowering, fearful seeker after the safety of self. 

Let me reassure you about death. On this subject I 
write with a firm pen. I have seen and heard and felt 

25 death ; once, you recall, after the violent disaster which 
permanently disabled me, I passed through what the doc- 
tors called all the physical experiences of the dissolution 
of spirit and body. No man alive has suffered more 
exquisite physical pain than I. Also, for long hours on 

30 end, and repeatedly, I have been under fire, listening to 
the marvelous orchestra of battle. I have faced death 
from airplanes and from submarines, from bandits and 
from plagues. In fact, death and I have become a sort of 
playfellows : and he is far better company than some of 

35 fairer repute. All who know him best will agree with me 
that he is not to be dreaded. You will understand me 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 199 

when I declare that no man on earth has more reason to 
live than I, or less fear to die. My religion has simmered 
down to a simple faith in a loving God who is more in- 
terested in the spirits of men than he is in the Thirty-nine 
Articles of Religion, the Five Points of Calvinism, or the 5 
Methodist Book of Discipline. All his plans for us must 
include two worlds. His character is so well expressed by 
the father nature that he gave us Jesus to show men in 
sublime and untheological simplicity how to live and how 
to die. God surely expects his other sons likewise to enter 10 
into his many mansions as gentlemen, conscious of their 
character and obligations. Death is only the great re- ■ 
vealer and great solver and great uniter. You are not the 
sort to make either your earthly or your heavenly Father 
ashamed of you by exalting your comfort and convenience 15 
above your character and convictions. The man who is 
afraid to die is scarcely fit to live. 

Daddy. 



PART TWO 
AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN VERSE 



INDEPENDENCE BELL° (JULY 4, 1776; 

Anonymous 

There was tumult in the city, 

In the quaint old Quaker town, 
And the streets were rife with people 

Pacing restless up and down ; 
People gathering at the corners, . 

Where they whispered each to each, 
And the sweat stood on their temples 

With the earnestness of speech. 

As the bleak Atlantic currents 

Lash the wild Newfoundland shore, IO 

So they beat against the State House, 

So they surged against the door ; 
And the mingling of their voices 

Made the harmony profound, 
Till the quiet street of Chestnut 15 

Was all turbulent with sound. 

"Will they do it?" "Dare they do it?" 

" Who is speaking?" "What's the news?" 
"What of Adams?" "What of Sherman?" 

"Oh, God grant they won't refuse !" 20 

" Make some way there ! " " Let me nearer ! " 

" I am stifling ! " " Stifle, then ! 
When a nation's life's at hazard, 

We've no time to think of men !" 
203 



204 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

So they surged against the State House, 

While all solemnly inside, 
• Sat the " Continental Congress/' 
Truth and reason for their guide ; 
5 O'er a simple scroll debating, 

Which, though simple it might be, 
Yet should shake the cliffs of England 
With the thimders of the free. 

Far aloft in that high steeple 
10 Sat the bellman, old and gray; 

He was weary of the tyrant 

And his iron-sceptered sway : 
So he sat, with one hand ready 
On the clapper of the bell, 
15 When his eye could catch the signal, 

The expected news to tell. 

See ! See ! The dense crowd quivers 

Through all its lengthy line, 
As the boy beside the portal 
20 Hastens forth to give the sign ! 

With his little hands uplifted, 

Breezes dallying with his hair — 
Hark ! with deep, clear intonation, 

Breaks his young voice on the air. 

25 Hushed the people's swelling murmur, 
Whilst the boy cries joyously : 
"Ring!" he shouts, "Ring, grandpapa! 

Ring ! oh, ring for Liberty ! " 
Quickly, at the given signal, 
30 The old bellman lifts his hand ; 

Forth he sends the good news, making 
Iron music through the land. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 205 

How they shouted ! What rejoicing ! 

How the old bell shook the air, 
Till the clang of freedom ruffled 

The calmly gliding Delaware ! 
How the bonfires and the torches 5 

Lighted up the night's repose, 
And from flames, like fabled Phoenix, 

Our glorious liberty arose ! 

That old State House bell is silent, 

Hushed is now its clamorous tongue ; 10 

But the spirit it awakened 

Still is living — ever young : 
And when we greet the smiling sunlight 

On the Fourth of each July, 
We will ne'er forget the bellman 15 

Who, betwixt the earth and sky, 
Rang out, loudly, " Independence !" 

Which, please God, shall never die ! 



HAIL, COLUMBIA (1798) 

By Joseph Hopkinson ° 

Hail, Columbia ! happy land ! 

Hail, ye heroes ! heaven-born band ! 20 

Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, 

Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, 
And when the storm of war was gone, 
Enjoyed the peace your valor won. 

Let independence be our boast, 25 

Ever mindful what it cost ; 

Ever grateful for the prize, 

Let its altar reach the skies. 



206 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Firm, united, let us be, 
Rallying round our Liberty ; 
As a band of brothers joined, 
Peace and safety we shall find. 

5 Immortal patriots ! rise once more : 

Defend your rights, defend your shore : 

Let no rude foe, with impious hand, 

Let no rude foe, with impious hand, 
Invade the shrine where sacred lies 
10 Of toil and blood the well-earned prize. 

While offering peace sincere and just, 

In Heaven we place a manly trust 

That truth and justice will prevail, 

And every scheme of bondage fail. 

15 Firm, united, etc. 

Sound, sound, the trump of Fame ! 
Let Washington's great name 

Ring through the world with loud applause, 

Ring through the world with loud applause ; 
20 Let every clime to Freedom dear, . 
Listen with a joyful ear. 

With equal skill, and godlike power, 

He governed in the fearful hour 

Of horrid war ; or guides, with ease, 
25 The happier times of honest peace. 

Firm, united, etc. 

Behold the chief who now commands, 
Once more to serve his country, stands — 
The rock on which the storm will beat, 
30 The rock on which the storm will beat : 

But, armed in virtue firm and true, 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 207 

His hopes are fixed on Heaven and you. 
When hope was sinking in dismay, 
And glooms obscured Columbia's day, 
His steady mind, from changes free, 
Resolved on death or liberty. 

Firm, united, let us be, 
Rallying round our Liberty ; 
As a band of brothers joined, 
Peace and safety we shall find. 



THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER (1814) 
By Francis Scott Key° 

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, IO 

What so proudly we nailed at the twilight's last gleam- 

in S ? . . 

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous 

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly stream- 
ing! 
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ; 15 
Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave 
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave? 

On that shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, 
Where the foe's naughty host in dread silence reposes, 
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, 20 

As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses? 
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, 
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream ; 
'Tis the star-spangled banner ; oh, long may it wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ! 25 



208 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore 

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion 
A home and a country should leave us no more? 

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pol- 
lution. 
5 No refuge could save the hireling and slave 
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave ; 
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave 
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 

Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand 
io Between their loved homes and the war's desolation ! 
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heaven-rescued 
land 
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a 
nation. 
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, 
And this be our motto — "In God is our trust" : 
15 And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave 
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 



THE AMERICAN FLAG (1819) 

By Joseph Rodman Drake ° 

When Freedom from her mountain height, 
Unfurled her standard to the air, 
She tore the azure robe of night, 

20 And set the stars of glory there. 

She mingled with its gorgeous dyes 
The milky baldric of the skies, 
And striped its pure, celestial white 
With streakings of the morning light ; 

25 Then from his mansion in the sun 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 209 

She called her eagle-bearer down, 
And gave into his mighty hand 
The symbol of her chosen land. 

Majestic monarch of the cloud, 
Who rear'st aloft thy regal form, 5 

To hear the tempest-trumpings loud, 
And see the lightning lances driven, 
When strive the warriors of the storm, 
And rolls the thunder drum of heaven, 
Child of the sun ! to thee 'tis given 10 

To guard the banner of the free, 
To hover in the sulphur smoke, 
To ward away the battle stroke, 
And bid its blendings shine afar, 
Like rainbows on the cloud of war, is 

The harbingers of victory ! 

Flag of the brave ! Thy folds shall fly, 

The sign of hope and triumph high ! 

When speaks the signal trumpet tone, 

And the long line comes gleaming on. 20 

Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet, 

Has dimmed the glistening bayonet, 

Each soldier eye shall brightly turn 

To where thy sky-born glories burn, 

And, as his springing steps advance, 25 

Catch war and vengeance from the glance. 

And when the cannon-mouthings loud 

Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud, 

And gory sabres rise and fall 

Like sheets of flame on midnight's pall, 30 

Then shall thy meteor glances glow, 

And cowering foes shall sink beneath 

Each gallant arm that strikes below 

That lovely messenger of death. 



210 AMEBIC AN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Flag of the seas ! On ocean wave 
Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave ; 
When death, careering on the gale, 
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail, 
s And frighted waves rush wildly back 

Before the broadside's reeling rack, 
Each dying wanderer of the sea 
Shall look at once to heaven and thee, 
And smile to see thy splendors fly 
10 In triumph o ? er his closing eye. 

Flag of the free heart's hope and home ! 

By angel hands to valor given ; 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues were born in heaven. 
15 And fixed as yonder orb divine, 

That saw thy bannered blaze unfurled, 
Shall thy proud stars resplendent shine, 

The guard and glory of the world. 
Forever float that standard sheet ! 
20 Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 

With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us? 



AMERICA (1832) 
By Samuel Francis Smith 

My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 
25 Of thee I sing; 

Land where my fathers died, 
Land of the pilgrims' pride, 
From every mountain-side 
Let freedom ring. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 211 

My native country, thee, 
Land of the noble free — 

Thy name I love ; 
I love thy rocks and rills, 

Thy woods and templed hills ; 5 

My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 

Let music swell the breeze, 
And ring from all the trees, 

Sweet Freedom's song; 10 

Let mortal tongues awake, 
Let all that breathe partake, 
Let rocks their silence break — 

The sound prolong. 

Our fathers' God, to Thee, 15 

Author of liberty, 

To Thee we sing ; 
Long may our land be bright 
With Freedom's holy light ; 
Protect us by Thy might, 20 

Great God, our King. 



CONCORD HYMN (1836) 
By Ralph Waldo Emerson 

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 

Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, 
Here once the embattled farmers stood, 

And fired the shot heard round the world. 25 

The foe long since in silence slept ; 
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps ; 



212 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

And Time the ruined bridge has swept 

Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. 

On this green bank, by this soft stream, 
We set to-day a votive stone ; 
5 That memory may their dead redeem, 

When, like our sires, our sons are gone. 

Spirit, that made those heroes dare 

To die, and leave their children free, 
Bid Time and Nature gently spare 
10 „ The shaft we raise to them and thee. 



THE BATTLE-FIELD (1837) 
By William Cullen Bryant 

Once this soft turf, this rivulet's sands, 
Were trampled by a hurrying crowd, 

And fiery hearts and armed hands 
Encountered in the battle-cloud. 

15 Ah ! never shall the land forget 

How gushed the life-blood of her brave — 
Gushed, warm with hope and courage yet, 
Upon the soil thky fought to save. 

Now all is calm, and fresh, and still ; 
20 Alone the chirp of flitting bird, 

And talk of children on the hill, 

And bell of wandering kine are heard. 

No solemn host goes trailing by 
The black-mouthed gun and staggering wain ; 
25 Men start not at the battle-cry, 

Oh, be it never heard again ! 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 213 

Soon rested those who fought ; but thou 

Who minglest in the harder strife 
For truths which men receive not now, 

Thy warfare only ends with life. 

A friendless warfare ! lingering long 5 

Through weary day and weary year, 
A wild and many-weaponed throng 

Hang on thy front, and flank, and rear. 

Yet nerve thy spirit to the proof, 

And blench not at thy chosen lot. 10 

The timid good may stand aloof, 

The sage may frown — yet faint thou not. 

Nor heed the shaft too surely cast, 

The foul and hissing bolt of scorn ; 
For with thy side shall dwell, at last, is 

The victory of endurance born. 

Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again ; 

The eternal years of God are hers ; 
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 

And dies among his worshippers. 20 

Yea, though thou lie upon the dust 

When they who helped thee flee in fear, 

Die full of hope and manly trust, 
Like those who fell in battle here. 

Another hand thy sword shall wield, 25 

Another hand the standard wave, 
Till from the trumpet's mouth is pealed 

The blast of triumph o'er thy grave. 



214 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

COLUMBIA, THE GEM OF THE OCEAN (1843) 
By David T. Shaw and Thomas a Becket 

Columbia, the gem of the ocean, 

The Home of the brave and the free, 
The shrine of each patriot's devotion, 

A world offers homage to thee ! 
5 Thy mandates make heroes assemble, 

When Liberty's form stands in view ; 
Thy banners make Tyranny tremble, 

When borne by the red, white and blue. 

Chorus 

When borne by the red, white, and blue, 
10 When borne by the red, white, and blue, 

Thy banners make Tyranny tremble, 
When borne by the red, white, and blue. 

When war winged its wide desolation 
And threatened the land to deform, 
15 The ark then of Freedom's foundation, 

Columbia, rode safe thro' the storm ; 
With her garlands of vict'ry around her, 

"When so proudly she bore her brave crew, 
With her flag proudly floating before her, 
20 The boast of the red, white, and blue. — Cho. 

The wine cup, the wine cup bring hither, 

And fill you it true to the brim ; 
May the wreaths they have won never wither, 

Nor the star of their glory grow dim ! 
25 May the service united ne'er sever, 

But they to their colors prove true ! 
The Army and Navy forever ! 

Three cheers for the red, white, and blue ! — Cho. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 215 

STANZAS ON FREEDOM (1843) 

By James Russell Lowell 

Men ! whose boast it is that ye 

Come of fathers brave and free, 

If there breathe on earth a slave, 

Are ye truly free and brave ? 

If ye do not feel the chain, 3 

When it works a brother's pain, 

Are ye not base slaves indeed, 

Slaves unworthy to be freed ? 

Women ! who shall one day bear 

Sons to breathe New England air, 10 

If ye hear, without a blush, 

Deeds to make the roused blood rush 

Like red lava through your veins, 

For your sisters now in chains — 

Answer ! are ye fit to be I5 

Mothers of the brave and free? 

Is true Freedom but to break 

Fetters for our own dear sake, 

And, with leathern hearts, forget 

That we owe mankind a debt? 20 

No ! true freedom is to share 

All the chains our brothers wear, 

And, with heart and hand, to be 

Earnest to make others free. 

They are slaves who fear to speak 25 

For the fallen and the weak ; 
They are slaves who will not choose 
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse 



216 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Rather than in silence shrink 

From the truth they needs must think ; 

They are slaves who dare not be 

In the right with two or three. 

THE PRESENT CRISIS (1844) 

By James Russell Lowell 

[This poem was written in 1844, when the annexation of 
Texas was a topic of general discussion.] 

5 When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad 

earth's aching breast 
Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to 

west, 
And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels the soul within 

him climb 
To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime 
Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of 

Time. 

10 Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instan- 
taneous throe, 

When the travail of the Ages wrings earth's systems to 
and fro ; 

At the birth of each new Era, with a recognizing start. 

Nation wildly looks at nation, standing with mute lips 
apart, 

And glad Truth's yet mightier man-child leaps beneath 
the Future's heart. 

*5 So the Evil's triumph sendeth, with a terror and a chill, 
Under continent to continent, the sense of coming ill, 
And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels his sympathies 
with God 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 217 

In hot tear-drops ebbing earthward, to be drunk up by 

the sod, 
Till a corpse crawls round unburied, delving in the nobler 

clod. 

For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along, 
Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash of right 

or wrong ; 
Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity's vast 

frame 5 

Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or 

shame — 
In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim. 

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to de- 
cide, 

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil 
side ; 

Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the 
bloom or blight, 10 

Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the 
right. 

And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and 
that light, 

Hast thou chosen, my people, on whose party thou 

shalt stand, 
Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust 

against our land? 
Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet 'tis Truth alone is 

strong, is 

And, albeit she wanders outcast now, I see around her 

throng 
Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all 

wrong. 



218 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Backward look across the ages and the beacon-moments 

see, 
That, like peaks of some sunk continent, jut through 

Oblivion's sea ; 
Not an ear in court or market for the low foreboding cry 
Of those Crises, God's stern winnowers, from whose feet 

earth's chaff must fly ; 
5 Never shows the choice momentous till the judgment 

hath passed by. 

Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but 

record 
One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and 

the Word ; 
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the 

throne — 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim 

unknown, 
ioStandeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above 

his own. 

We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is 

great, 
Slow of faith how weak an army may turn the iron helm of 

fate, 
But the soul is still oracular ; amid the market's din, 
List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave 
within — 
15 " They enslave their children's children who make com- 
promise with sin." 

Slavery, the earth-born Cyclops, fellest of the giant brood, 
Sons of brutish Force and Darkness, who have drenched 

the earth with blood, 
Famished in his self-made desert, blinded by our purer 

day, 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 219 

Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey — 
Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children 
play? 

Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her 

wretched crust, 
Ere her cause bring fame and profit and 'tis prosperous 

to be just ; 
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands 

aside, 5 

Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified, 
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had 

denied. 

Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes — they were souk 
that stood alone, 

While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious 
stone, 

Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam 
incline 10 

To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith 
divine, 

By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's su- 
preme design. 

By the light of burning heretics Christ's bleeding feet I 

track, 
Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns 

not back, 
And these mounts of anguish number how each generation 

learned 15 

One new word of that great Credo which in prophet-hearts 

hath burned 
Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to 

heaven upturned. 



220 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

For Humanity sweeps onward : where today the martyr 

stands, 
On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his 

hands; 
Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling 

fagots burn, 
While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return 
5 To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn. 

'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves 

Of a legendary virtue carved upon our fathers' graves, 

Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a 

crime — 
Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men 

behind their time ? 
i o Turn those tracks toward Past or Future, that make 

Plymouth Rock sublime? 

They were men of present valor, stalwart old iconoclasts, 
Unconvinced by axe or gibbet that all virtue was the 

Past's ; 
But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking that 

hath made us free, 
Hoarding it in moldy parchments, while our tender spirits 

flee 
1 5 The rude grasp of that great Impulse which drove them 

across the sea. 

They have rights who dare maintain them ; we are traitors 
to our sires, 

Smothering in their holy ashes Freedom's new-lit altar-fires ; 

Shall we make their creed our jailer? Shall we, in our 
haste to slay, 

From the tombs of the old prophets steal the funeral 
lamps away 
20T0 light up the martyr-fagots round the prophets of to- 
day? 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 221 

New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient 
good uncouth ; 

They must upward still, and onward, who would keep 
abreast of Truth ; 

Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must 
Pilgrims be, 

Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the des- 
perate winter sea, 

Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood- 
rusted key. s 

THE SHIP OF STATE (1849) 

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Thou, too, sail on, Ship of State ! 

Sail on, Union, strong and great ! 

Humanity with all its fears, 

With all the hopes of future years 

Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 10 

We know what Master laid thy keel, 

What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 

Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, 

What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 

In what a forge and what a heat 1 5 

Were shaped the anchors of thy hope ! 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 

'Tis of the wave and not the rock ; 

'Tis but the flapping of the sail, 

And not a rent made by the gale ! 20 

In spite of rock and tempest's roar 

In spite of false lights on the shore, 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 25 

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 

Are all with thee — are all with thee ! 



222 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC (1861) 
By Julia Ward Howe° 

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the 

Lord: 
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath 

are stored ; 
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift 

sword ; 
His truth is marching on. 

5 I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling 

camps : 
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and 

damps ; 
I can see His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring 

lamps : 
His day is marching on. 

I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel : 
10 " As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace 
shall deal ; 
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his 

heel, 
Since God is marching on." 

He hath sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call 

retreat ; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment 

seat. 
15 Oh ! be swift, my soul, to answer Him ! be jubilant, my 

feet! 
Our God is marching on. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 22S 

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, 
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me ; 
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
While God is marching on. 



UNION AND LIBERTY (1861) 
By Oliver Wendell Holmes 

Flag of the heroes who left us their glory, 5 

Borne through their battlefields' thunder and flame, 
Blazoned in song and illumined in story, 
Wave o'er us all who inherit their fame ! 
Up with our banner bright, 

Sprinkled with starry light, 10 

Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, 
While through the sounding sky 
Loud rings the Nation's cry — 
Union and Liberty ! One evermore ! 

Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation, 15 

Pride of her children, and honored afar, 
Let the wide beams of thy full constellation 

Scatter each cloud that would darken a star ! 
Up with our banner bright, etc. 

Empire unsceptred ! what foe shall assail thee, 20 

Bearing the standard of Liberty's van ? 
Think not the God of thy fathers shall fail thee, 

Striving with men for the birthright of man ! 
Up with our banner bright, etc. 

Yet if, by madness and treachery blighted, *S 

Dawns the dark hour when the sword thou must draw, 



224 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Then with the arms of th} r millions united, 
Smite the bold traitors to Freedom and Law ! 
Up with our banner bright, etc. 

Lord of the Universe ! shield us and guide us, 
5 Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun ! 
Thou hast united us, who shall divide us? 
Keep us, oh, keep us the Many en One ! 
Up with our banner bright, 
Sprinkled with starry light, 
io Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, 
While through the sounding sky 
Loud rings the Nation's cry, — 
Union and Liberty ! One evermore ! 



BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM (1861) 
By George F. Root 

Yes, we'll rally 'round the flag, boys, we'll rally once 
again, 
is Shouting the battle-cry of freedom ; 

We will rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain, 

Shouting the battle-cry of freedom. 

Chorus 

The Union forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah ! 
Down with the traitor, up with the star, 
20 While we ratty 'round the flag, boys, rally once again, 
Shouting the battle-cry of freedom. 

We are springing to the call of our brothers gone before, 
Shouting the battle-cry of freedom. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 225 

And we'll fill the vacant ranks with a million freemen more, 
Shouting the battle-cry of freedom. 

Chorus 

We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true, and brave, 

Shouting the battle-cry of freedom. 
And altho' they may be poor, not a man shall be a slave, 5 

Shouting the battle-cry of freedom. 

Chorus 

So we're springing to the call from the East and from the 
West, 
Shouting the battle-cry of freedom, 
And we'll hurl the rebel crew from the land we love the 
best, 
Shouting the battle-cry of freedom. 10 

Chorus 

THE SWORD OF BUNKER HILL (1861) 
By William Ross Wallace ° 

He lay upon his dying bed ; 

His eye was growing dim, 
When with a feeble voice he called 

His weeping son to him : 
u Weep not, my boy !" the vet'ran said, 15 

"I bow to Heaven's high will — 
But quickly from yon antlers bring 

The sword of Bunker Hill." 

The sword was brought, the soldier's eye 

Lit with a sudden flame ; 20 

And as he grasped the ancient blade, 
He murmured Warren's name ; 

Q 



226 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Then said, "My boy, I leave you gold — 

But what is richer still, 
I leave you, mark me, mark me now — 

The sword of Bunker Hill. 

5 "T was on that dread, immortal day, 

I dared the Briton's band, 
A captain raised this blade on me — 

I tore it from his hand : 
And while the glorious battle raged, 
10 It lightened freedom's will — 

For, boy, the God of freedom blessed 
The sword of Bunker Hill. 

"Oh, keep the sword !" — his accents broke — 
A smile — and he was dead — 
15 But his wrinkled hand still gfasped the blade 

Upon that dying bed. 
The son remains ; the sword remains — 

Its glory growing still — 
And twenty millions bless the sire, 
20 And sword of Bunker Hill. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RISING (1862) 
By Thomas Buchanan Read 

Out of the North the wild news came, 
Far flashing on its wings of flame, 
Swift as the boreal light which flies 
At midnight through the startled skies. 
25 And there was tumult in the air, 

The fife's shrill note, the drum's loud beat, 
And through the wide land everywhere 

The answering tread of hurrying feet ; 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 227 

While the first oath of Freedom's gun 

Came on the blast from Lexington ; 

And Concord, roused, no longer tame, 

Forgot her old baptismal name, 

Made bare her patriot arm of power, 5 

And swelled the discord of the hour. 

Within its shade of elm and oak 

The church of Berkeley Manor stood ; 

There Sunday found the rural folk, 

And some esteemed of gentle blood. 10 

In vain their feet with loitering tread 

Passed 'mid the graves where rank is naught ; 

All could not read the lesson taught 
In that republic of the dead. 

How sweet the hour of Sabbath talk, IS 

The vale with peace and sunshine full 
Where all the happy people walk, 

Decked in their homespun flax and wool ! 
Where youth's gay hats with blossoms bloom ; 

And every maid with simple art, 20 

Wears on her breast, like her own heart, 
A bud whose depths are all perfume ; 
While every garment's gentle stir 
Is breathing rose and lavender. 

The pastor came ; his snowy locks 25 

Hallowed his brow of thought and care ; 

And calmly, as shepherds lead their flocks, 
He led into the house of prayer. 

The pastor rose ; the prayer was strong ; 

The psalm was warrior David's song ; 3 o 

The text, a few short words of might — 

"The Lord of hosts shall arm the right \" 



228 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

He spoke of wrongs too long endured, 
Of sacred rights to be secured ; 
Then from his patriot tongue of flame 
The startling words for Freedom came. 
5 The stirring sentences he spake 

Compelled the heart to glow or quake, 
And, rising on his theme's broad wing, 

And grasping in his nervous hand 

The imaginary battle brand, 
10 In face of death he dared to fling 
Defiance to a tyrant king. 

Even as he spoke, his frame, renewed 

In eloquence of attitude, 

Rose, as it seemed, a shoulder higher ; 
j 5 Then swept his kindling glance of fire 

From startled pew to breathless choir ; 

When suddenly his mantle wide 

His hands impatient flung aside, 

And, lo ! he met their wondering eyes 
20 Complete in all a warrior's guise. 

A moment there was awful pause — 

When Berkeley cried, " Cease, traitor! cease! 
God's temple is the house of peace !" 

The other shouted, "Nay, not so, 
25 Wlien God is with our righteous cause; 
His holiest places then are ours, 
His temples are our forts and towers, 

That frown upon the tyrant foe ; 

In this, the dawn of Freedom's day, 
3 o There is a time to fight and pray !" 

And now before the open door — 

The warrior priest had ordered so — 
The enlisting trumpet's sudden roar 
Rang through the chapel, o'er and o'er, 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 229 

Its long reverberating blow, 
So loud and clear, it seemed the ear 
Of dusty death must wake and hear. 
And there the startling drum and fife 
Fired the living with fiercer life ; . 5 • 

While overhead, with wild increase, 
Forgetting its ancient toll of peace, 

The great bell swung as ne'er before ; 
It seemed as it would never cease ; 
And every word its ardor flung 10 

From off its jubilant iron tongue 

Was, "War! War! War!" 

"Who dares?" — this was the patriot's cry, 

As striding from the desk he came — 

"Come out with me, in Freedom's name, 15 

For her to live, for her to die?" 
A hundred hands flung up reply, 
A hundred voices answered, "I !" 



PAUL REVERE'S RIDE (1863) 
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? 

Listen, my children, and you shall hear 

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, 20 

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five ; 

Hardly a man is now alive 

Who remembers that famous day and year. 

He said to his friend, "If the British march 

By land or sea from the town tonight, 25 

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch 

Of the North Church tower as a signal light — 

One, if by land, and two, if by sea ; 



230 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

And I on the opposite shore will be, 
Ready to ride and spread the alarm 
Through every Middlesex village and farm, 

For the country folk to be up and to arm." 

i 

5 Then he said, "Good-night ! " and with muffled oar 
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, 
Just as the moon rose over the bay, 
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay 
The Somerset, British man-of-war ; 
10 A phantom ship, with each mast and spar 
Across the moon like a prison bar, 
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified 
By its own reflection in the tide. 

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street, 

15 Wanders and watches with eager ears, 
Till in the silence around him he hears 
The muster of men at the barrack door, 
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, 
And the measured tread of the grenadiers, 

20 Marching down to their boats on the shore. 



Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, 

By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, 

To the belfry-chamber overhead, 

And startled the pigeons from their perch * 

25 On the sombre rafters, that round him made 
Masses and moving shapes of shade — 
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall, 
To the highest window in. the wall, 
Where he paused to listen and look down 

30 A moment on the roofs of the town, 
And the moonlight flowing over all. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 231 

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, 

In their night-encampment on the hill, 

Wrapped in silence so deep and still 

That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread, 

The watchful night wind, as it went 5 

Creeping along from tent to tent, 

And seeming to whisper, "All is well !" 

A moment only he feels the spell 

Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread 

Of the lonely belfry and the dead ; 10 

For suddenly all his thoughts are bent 

On a shadowy something far away, 

Where the river widens to meet the bay — 

A line of black that bends and floats 

On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats. 15 

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, 

Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride 

On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere. 

Now he patted his horse's side, 

Now gazed at the landscape far and near, 20 

Then, impetuous, stamped the earth, 

And turned and tightened his saddle-girth ; 

But mostly he watched with eager search 

The belfry-tower of the Old North Church, 

As it rose above the graves on the hill, 25 

Lonely and spectral and sombre and still. 

And lo ! as he looks, on the belfry's height 

A glimmer, and then a gleam of light ! 

He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, 

But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight 30 

A second lamp in the belfry burns ! 

A hurry of hoofs in a village street, 

A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, 



232 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark 
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet ; 
That was all ! And yet, through the gloom and the light, 
The fate of a nation was riding that night ; 
5 And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, 
Kindled the land into flame with its heat. 

He has left the village and mounted the steep, 
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep, 
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides ; 
10 And under the alders that skirt its edge, 

Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge, 
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides. 

It was twelve by the village clock 
When he crossed the bridge into Medf ord town. 
15 He heard the crowing of the cock 
And the barking of the farmer's dog, 
And felt the damp of the river fog 
That rises after the sun goes down. 

It was one by the village clock 
20 When he galloped into Lexington. 

He saw the gilded weathercock 

Swim in the moonlight as he passed, 

And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, 

Gaze at him with a spectral glare, 
25 As if they already stood aghast 

At the bloody work they would look upon. 

It was two by the village clock 
When he came to the bridge in Concord town. 
He heard the bleating of the flock 
30 And the twitter of birds among the trees, 
And felt the breath of the morning breeze 
Blowing over the meadows brown. 






AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 233 

And one was safe and asleep in his bed 
Who at the bridge would be first to fall, 
Who that day would be lying dead, 
Pierced by a British musket-ball. 

You know the rest. In the books you have read, 5 

How the British Regulars fired and fled — 

How the farmers gave them ball for ball 

From behind each fence and farm-yard wall, 

Chasing the red-coats down the lane, 

Then crossing the fields to emerge again 10 

Under the trees at the turn of the road, 

And only pausing to fire and load. 

So through the night rode Paul Revere ; 

And so through the night went his cry of alarm 

To every Middlesex village and farm — 15 

A cry of defiance and not of fear, 

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, 

And a word that shall echo f orevermore ! 

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, 

Through all our history, to the last, 20 

In the hour of darkness and peril and need, 

The people will waken and listen to hear 

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed, 

And the midnight message of Paul Revere. 



BOSTON HYMN (1865) 
By Ralph Waldo Emerson ° 

The word of the Lord by night 25 

To the watching Pilgrims came, 

As they sat by the seaside, 

And filled their hearts with flame. 



234 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

God said, I am tired of kings, 
I suffer them no more ; 
Up to my ear the morning brings 
The outrage of the poor. 

5 Think ye I made this ball 

A field of havoc and war, 
Where tyrants great and tyrants small 
Might harry the weak and poor ? 

My angel — his name is Freedom — 
10 Choose him to be your king ; 

He shall cut pathways east and west, 
And fend you with his wing. 

Lo ! I uncover the land 
Which I hid of old time in the West, 
15 As the sculptor uncovers the statue 

When he has wrought his best ; 

I show Columbia, of the rocks 
Which dip their foot in the seas, 
And soar to the air-borne flocks 
20 Of clouds and the boreal fleece. 

I will divide my goods ; 
Call in the wretch and slave : 
None shall rule but the humble, 
And none but Toil shall have. 

*$, I will have never a noble, 

No lineage counted great ; 
Fishers and choppers and ploughmen 
Shall constitute a state. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 235 

Go, cut down trees in the forest, 
And trim the straightest boughs ; 
Cut down trees in the forest, 
And build me a wooden house. 

Call the people together, 5 

The young men and the sires, 
The digger in the harvest field, 
Hireling and him that hires ; 

And here in a pine state-house 

They shall choose men to rule 10 

In every needful faculty, 

In church and state and school. 

Lo, now ! if these poor men 

Can govern the land and sea, 

And make just laws below the sun, 15 

As planets faithful be. 

And ye shall succor men ; 

'Tis nobleness to serve ; 

Help them who cannot help again : 

Beware from right to swerve. 20 

I break your bonds and masterships, 
And I unchain the slave : 
Free be his heart and hand henceforth 
As wind and wandering wave. 

I cause from every creature 25 

His proper good to flow : 
As much as he is and doeth, 
So much he shall bestow. 



236 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

But laying hands on another 
To coin his labor and sweat, 
He goes in pawn to his victim 
For eternal years in debt. 

5 Today unbind the captive, 

So only are ye unbound ; 
Lift up a people from the dust, 
Trump of their rescue, sound ! 

Pay ransom to the owner, 
10 And fill the bag to the brim. 

Who is the owner? The slave is owner, 
And ever was. Pay him. 

O North ! give him beauty for rags, 
And honor, South ! for his shame ; 
is Nevada ! coin thy golden crags 

With Freedom's image and name. 

Up ! and the dusky race 
That sat in darkness long — 
Be swift their feet as antelopes, 
20 And as behemoth strong. 

. Come, East and West and North, 
By races, as snow-flakes, 
And carry my purpose forth, 
Which neither halts nor shakes. 

25 My will fulfilled shall be, 

For, in daylight or in dark, 
My thunderbolt has eyes to see 
His way home to the mark. 



AMEBIC AN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 237 

LIBERTY FOR ALL 

By William Lloyd Garrison 

They tell me, Liberty! that in thy name 

I may not plead for all the human race ; 

That some are born to bondage and disgrace, 

Some to a heritage of woe and shame, 

And some to power supreme, and glorious fame: 5 

With my whole soul I spurn the doctrine base, 

And, as an equal brotherhood, embrace 

All people, and for all fair freedom claim ! 

Know this, man ! whate'er thy earthly fate — 

God never made a tyrant nor a slave : IO 

Woe, then, to those who dare to desecrate 

His glorious image ! — for to all he gave 

Eternal rights, which none may violate ; 

And, by a mighty hand, the oppressed He yet shall save. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1865) 

By James Russell Lowell 

Life may be given in many ways, I5 

And loyalty to Truth be sealed 
As bravely in the closet as the field, 

So bountiful is Fate ; 

But then to stand beside her, 

When craven churls deride her, 20 

To front a lie in arms and not to yield, 

This shows, methinks, God's plan 

And measure of a stalwart man, 

Limbed like the old heroic breeds, 

Who stand self -poised on manhood's solid earth, 25 

Not forced to frame excuses for his birth, 
Fed from within with all the strength he needs. 

Such was he, our martyr 'chief, 



238 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Whom late the Nation he had led, 
With ashes on her head, 
Wept with the passion of an angry grief : 

Forgive me, if from present things I turn 
5 To speak what in my heart will beat and burn, 
And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn. 
Nature, they say, doth dote, 
And cannot make a man 
Save on some worn-out plan, 
10 Repeating us by rote : 

For him her Old- World molds aside she threw, 
And, choosing sweet clay from the breast 

Of the unexhausted West, 
With stuff untainted shaped a hero new, 
15 Wise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true. 
How beautiful to see 
Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed, 
Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead ; 
One whose meek flock the people joyed to be 
20 Not lured by any cheat of birth, 
But by his clear-grained human worth, 
And brave old wisdom of sincerity ! 
They knew that outward grace is dust ; 
They could not choose but trust 
25 In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill, 
And supple-tempered will 
That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust. 
His was no lonely mountain peak of mind, 
Thrusting to thin air o'er our cloudy bars, 
30 A sea mark now, now lost in vapor's blind ; 
Broad prairie rather, genial, level-lined, 
Fruitful and friendly for all human kind, 
Yet also nigh to Heaven and loved of loftiest stars. 
Nothing of Europe here, 
35 Or, then, of Europe fronting morn ward still, 
Ere any names of serf and peer 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 239 

Could Nature's equal scheme deface 
And thwart her genial will ; 
Here was a type of the true elder race, 
And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face. 

I praise him not ; it were too late ; 5 

And some innative weakness there must be 
In him who condescends to victory 
Such as the Present gives, and cannot wait, 
Safe in himself as in a fate. 

So always firmly he : 10 

He knew to bide his time, 
And can his fame abide, 
Still patient in his simple faith sublime, 
Till the wise years decide. 
Great captains, with their guns and drums, 15 

Disturb our judgment for the hour, 
But at last silence comes ! 
These all are gone, and standing like a tower, 
Our children shall behold his fame, 

The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, 20 

Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, 
New birth of our new soil, the first American. 

• 
THE BLUE AND THE GRAY (1867)1 

By Francis Miles Finch 

By the flow of the inland river, 

Whence the fleets of iron have fled, 
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver, 25 

Asleep are the ranks of the dead : 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the Judgment Day ; 
Under the one, the Blue: 
Under the other, the Gray. 3 o 

1 Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company 
from F. M. Fineh's poems, "The Blue and the Gray and 
Other Poems." 



240 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

These in the robings of glory, 

Those in the gloom of defeat, 
All with the battle-blood gory, 
In the dusk of eternity meet : 
5 Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the Judgment Day ; 
Under the laurel, the Blue ; 
Under the willow, the Gray. 

From the silence of sorrowful hours 
io The desolate mourners go, 

Lovingly laden with flowers 
Alike for the friend and the foe : 
Under the sod and the dew, 
Waiting the Judgment Day ; 
15 Under the roses, the Blue ; 

Under the lilies, the Gray. 

So with an equal splendor 

The morning sun-rays fail, 
With a touch impartially tender, 
20 On the blossoms blooming for all : 

Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the Judgment Day ; 
Broidered with gold, the Blue ; 
Mellowed with gold, the Gray. 



25 



3o 



So, when the summer calleth, 
On forest and field of grain, 
With an equal murmur falleth 
The cooling drip of the rain : 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the Judgment Day ; 
Wet with the rain, the Blue ; 
Wet with the rain, the Gray. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 241 

Sadly, but not with upbraiding, 
The generous deed was done, 
In the storm of the years that are fading 
No braver battle was won : 
Under the sod and the dew, 5 

Waiting the Judgment Day ; 
Under the blossoms, the Blue ; 
Under the garlands, the Gray. 

No more shall the war cry sever, 

Or the winding rivers be red ; 10 

They banish our anger forever 
When they laurel the graves of our dead ! 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the Judgment Day ; 
Love and tears for the Blue ; 15 

Tears and love for the Gray. 



CENTENNIAL HYMN (1876) 
By John Greenleaf Whittier 

Our fathers' God ! from out whose hand 

The centuries fall like grains of sand, 

We meet today, united, free, 

And loyal to our land and Thee, 20 

To thank Thee for the era done, 

And trust Thee for the opening one. 

Here, where of old, by Thy design, 

The fathers spake that word of Thine 

Whose echo is the glad refrain 25 

Of rendered bolt and falling chain, 

To grace our festal time, from all 

The zones of earth our guests we call. 



242 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Be with us while the New World greets 
The Old World thronging all its streets, 
Unveiling all the triumphs won 
By art or toil beneath the sun ; 
5 And unto common good ordain 

This rivalship of hand and brain. 

Thou, who hast here in concord furled 
The war flags of a gathered world, 
Beneath our Western skies fulfill 
10 The Orient's mission of good- will, 

And, freighted with love's Golden Fleece, 
Send back its Argonauts of peace. 

For art and labor met in truce, 
For beauty made the bride of use, 
15 We thank Thee ; but, withal, we crave 

The austere virtues strong to save, 
The honor proof to place or gold, 
The manhood never bought nor sold ! 

Oh, make Thou us, through centuries long, 
20 In peace secure, in justice strong ; 

Around our gift of freedom draw 
The safeguards of thy righteous law : 
And, cast in some diviner mold, 
Let the new cycle shame the old ! 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 243 

THE FLAG GOES BY (1904) 
By Henry Holcomb Bennett 

Hats off ! 

Along the street there comes 

A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, 

A flash of color beneath the sky : 

Hats off ! 5 

The flag is passing by ! 

Blue and crimson and white it shines, 

Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines. 

Hats off ! 

The colors before us fly ; IO 

But more than the flag is passing by : 

Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great, 

Fought to make and to save the State : 

Weary marches and sinking ships ; 

Cheers of victory on dying lips ; 15 

Days of plenty and years of peace ; 
March of a strong land's swift increase ; 
Equal justice, right and law, 
Stately honor and reverend awe ; 

Sign of a nation great and strong 20 

To ward her people from foreign wrong : 
Pride and glory and honor, — all 
Live in the colors to stand or fall. 

Hats off! 

Along the street there comes 25 

A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums ; 

And loyal hearts are beating high : 

Hats off ! 

The flag is passing by ! 



244 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

ROBERT E. LEE (1907) 
By Julia Ward Howe ° 

A gallant foeman in the fight, 
A brother when the fight was o'er, 

The hand that led the host with might 
The blessed torch of learning bore. 

5 No shriek of shells nor roll of drums, 

No challenge fierce, resounding far, 
When reconciling Wisdom comes 
To heal the cruel wounds of war. 

Thought may the minds of men divide, 
10 Love makes the hearts of nations one; 

And so, thy soldier grave beside, 
We honor thee, Virginia's son. 



THE FLAG OF THE FREE (1910) 
By Henry van Dyke ° 

brave flag, bright flag, flag to lead the free ! 

The glory of thy silver stars, 
*5 Engrailed in blue above the bars 

Of red for courage, white for truth, 

Has brought the world a second youth 
And drawn a hundred million hearts to follow after thee. 

Old Cambridge saw thee first unfurled, 
20 By Washington's far-reaching hand, 

To greet, in Seventy-six, the wintr}^ morn 
Of a new year, and herald to the world 

Glad tidings from a Western land, — 

A people and a hope new-born ! 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 245 

The double cross then filled thine azure field, 

In token of a spirit loath to yield 

The breaking ties that bound thee to a throne. 

But not for long thine oriflamme could bear 

That symbol of an outworn trust in kings. 5 

The winds that bore thee out on widening wings 

Called for a greater sign and all thine own, — 

A new device to speak of heavenly laws 

And lights that surely guide the people's cause. 

Oh, greatly did they hope, and greatly dare, 10 

Who bade the stars in heaven fight for them, 

And set upon their battle-flag a fair 

New constellation as a diadem ! 

Along the blood-stained banks of Brandyiwine 

The ragged regiments were rallied to this sign; 15 

Through Saratoga's woods it fluttered bright 

Amid the perils of the hard-won fight ; 

O'er Yorktown's meadows broad and green 

It hailed the glory of the final scene ; 

And when at length Manhattan saw 20 

The last invaders' line of scarlet coats 

Pass Bowling Green, and fill the waiting boats 

And sullenly withdraw, 

The flag that proudly flew 
Above the battered line of buff and blue, 25 

Marching, with rattling drums and shrilling pipes, 
Along the Bowery and down Broadway, 
Was this that leads the great parade today, — 
The glorious banner of the stars and stripes. 

First of the flags of earth to dare 3 o 

A heraldry so high ; 

First of the flags of earth to bear 
The blazons of the sky; 

Long may thy constellation glow, 
Foretelling happy fate ; 35 

Wider thy starry circle grow, 



246 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

And every star a State ! . . . 
Look forth across thy widespread lands, 
flag, and let thy stars to-night be eyes 
To see the visionary hosts 
5 Of men and women grateful to be thine, 
That joyfully arise 
From all thy borders and thy coasts, 
And follow after thee in endless line ! 
They lift to thee a forest of saluting hands ; 
io They hail thee with a rolling ocean-roar 
Of cheers ; and as the echo dies, 
There comes a sweet and moving song 
Of treble voices from the childish throng 
Who run to theeirom every school-house door. 
1 5 Behold thine army ! Here thy power lies : 
The men whom freedom has made strong, 
And bound to follow thee by willing vows ; 

The women great ened by the joys 
Of motherhood to rule a happy house ; 
20 The vigorous girls and boys, 

Whose eager faces and unclouded brows 
Foretell the future of a noble race, 
Rich in the wealth of wisdom and true worth ! 
While millions such as these to thee belong, 
25 What foe can do thee wrong, 

What jealous rival rob thee of thy place 
Foremost of all the flags of earth ? . . . 



bright flag, brave flag, flag to lead the free ! 

The hand of God thy colors blent, 
3 o And heaven to earth thy glory lent, 

To shield the weak, and guide the strong 

To make an end of human wrong, 
And draw a countless human host to follow after thee ! 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 247 

AMERICA FOR ME (igio) 
By Henry van Dyke 

Tis fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down 
Among the famous palaces and cities of renown, 
To admire crumbly castles and the statues of the kings — 
But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things. 



So it's home again, and home again, America for me ! 
My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be, 
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars, 
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars 



Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air ; 

And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair ; 10 

And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study 

Rome, 
But when it comes to living, there is no place like home. 



I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to 

lack: 
The Past is too much with her, and the people looking 

back. 
But the glory of the Present is to make the Future free — 15 
We love our land for what she is and what she is to be. 

Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me ! 
I want a ship that's westward bound to plough the rolling 

sea, 
To the blessed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean 

bars, 
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars. 20 



248 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 



THE CHALLENGE (1917) 

" The world must be made safe for democracy." — President 
Wilson, April 2, 1917 

By Dysart McMullen ° 

Not with the rolling voices of the guns, 
Nor yet with sheen of sun on bayonet bright 
Do we salute the world, this day of days, 
Strong to uphold the right. 

s Power shall answer might in days to come, 
Shell speak to shell beneath a flaming sky, 
And soldiers swarm the narrow ways of death 
Proud of their chance to die. 

But that is for the future ; here today 
10 After long waiting have we found tongue, 
And in forum of the world's acclaim 
Immortal challenge flung. 

He must be safe who delves with humble hands ! — 
He must be safe who toils in storm and heat ! — 
15 Never again the plaything of dull kings 
Chained to ambitious feet ! 

Only for this we go into the murk : 
Not for revenge — yea, though our dead be hid 
Deep in the sea and call with clarion voice — 
20 Our greatness must forbid. 

But to this monstrous thing which men have made 
Out of long ages strong of hate and might — 
This bloody mask called Emperor or King, 
This horror of the night — 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 249 

We call a halt ! and bid it stand and draw ! — 
Beat the long roll and all our bugles play ! 
Hark well our challenge ! Ye who crowd the night ! — 
It is the dawn of day ! 

AN ODE OF DEDICATION (1917) 
By Hermann Hagedorn 



Who would have thought a month of Spring 5 

Could work so deep a change ? 
Who would have thought a dream could sting 
The dead to new life, quivering, 
And shake dull hearts with echoing 

Of music new and strange? IO 

The deaf have heard a call, 

The scoffers have heard a cry. 
Freedom moaned, "Give help ! I fall ! 

Brother, your hand ! I die ! " 
The dumb have heard and spoken, I5 

The sluggards have stirred ; 
A word, a dream, has broken 

The sleep of the sepulchered ! 
Through the storm and the dark 

Freedom flashed a spark, 20 

And we who love her name 
Burst into flame, 
And came ! 

Who would have thought that April days 

Could work such conjury? 2$ 

Up from the crowded towns ablaze, 
Up from the green hills, like a haze 
Slow-rising to some magic lay's 



10 



250 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Unearthly harmony — 
Walls and resplendent spires 

Have arisen, and stand ! 
A place of faint, far choirs 
And chimes and candle-fires, 
A month of new desires 

Has made a noisy land. 
A place of prayer and search, 

A house of God, a church ! 

Lo, how the spires ascend ! 

Lo, how the arches rise ! 
Lo, how the pinnacles pierce the clouds 

To melt their glow with the sky's ! 
What miracle, Wyoming? 
I5 What high roof overspreads, 

Kansas, your waving fields, 

New York, your hurrying heads ? 
What roof strains to the stars 

Over hill, over plain ? 
20 What Gothic glory covers you both, 

California, Maine? 
In Florida, in Idaho, 

The crystal walls aspire ; 
In Oregon, in Delaware, 
25 Sings low the faint, far choir. 

The valleys feel a sacred stir 

In every leaf and clod ; 
And from every mountain, every hill, 

The pillars loom up to God. 

11 

30 Who said, "It is a booth where doves are sold" t 
Who said, "It is a money-changers 9 cave" t 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 251 

Silence to such forever, and behold ! 

It is a vast cathedral, and its nave 
And dim-lit transept and broad aisles are filled 

With a great nation's millions, on their knees 
With new devotion and high fervor thrilled 5 

Offering silver and heart's-ease 
And love and life and all sweet, temporal things, 

Still to keep bright 

The steady light 
That stifles in the wake of kings ! 10 



A market-place ! they cried ? 

A lotus-land ? They lied I 
It is a great cathedral, not with hands 
Upraised, but by the spirit's mute commands 
Uplifted by the spirit, wall and spire, i 5 

To house a nation's purified desire ! 
A church ! Where in hushed fervor stand 

The children of contending races, 
Forgetting feud and fatherland — 

A hundred million lifted faces. 20 



in 

Once more the bugle breaks the April mood. 

Once more the march of armies wakes the glen. 
Once more the ardor simmers in the blood. 

Once more a dream is single lord of men ! 



From images, from gods of clay, 2S 

From idols bright with diadems ; 
From lips that drew our souls astray 

With lure of palaces and gems 



252 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

And dancing girls and lights and wine 

And crowns and power and golden halls ; 
From pride's penurious Mine and Thine, 

Like narrow streets with towering walls ; 
From painted counterfeits and trash 

We turn to the authentic gleam, 
Where in the gale and battle thrash 

The banners of a holy dream ! 



Once more a dream is single lord of men ! 
10 Yea, we have put aside all little gods ! 

A dream is captain of the hours again ! 

And we who were the sod's 
Budding and fading children, with no trust 

Or treasury beyond the dust, 
15 Feel on our eyes ethereal finger-tips 

Burn like a living coal ! — 
And gasp to feel the angel at our lips 

Call and awake the soul ! 



Once more a dream is single lord of men ! 
20 Yea, 'we will rise and go, and face disaster 

And want and wounds and death in some far fen, 

Having no king, but a great dream for master ! — 
To lead us over perilous seas, through trials 

Of heart and spirit, through long nights of pain, 
25 Through agonies of fear, and self-denials, 

And longing for far friends and comrades slain. 
And doubt and hate and utter weariness 

And savage hungers and supreme despairs — 
Yea, we will go, yea, we will acquiesce, 
30 So at the last our children be the heirs 

Of life, not death ; of liberty, not bars ! 
Inheritors not of smooth, ordered things, 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 253 

But of hot struggle and strong hearts, and stars ! 
And questing spirits and fierce gales and wings ! 

Once more a dream is single lord of men ! 

Yea, we will go and we will close dear doors 
Of hope, and many an airy denizen 5 

Of the dear land of Maybe and the shores 
Of the enchanted islands of Perchance, 

We will face, hand in hand and eye in eye, 
Too full of pain for any utterance 

Save the last halting murmur, "So — good-by." 10 
For we will part from other friends than those 

Who wear this garment of dissolving flesh. 
And die for dreams. Yea, softly we will close 

The gates of twilit gardens cool and fresh, 
Where, with the great immortals amid flowers 15 

And bright immortal birds and billowy trees, 
We held high converse and forgot the hours, 

Remembering Truth and Beauty. Even to these 
Beloved ghosts we also speak farewell. 



rv 

We will arise and go, not ignorant 20 

Wherefore or at what price we go to sell 

This bundle of bright hopes we covenant 
Unto a dream. Our price is a new world ! 

We will go forth and slay the dragon, yea, 
With all the banners of the Dream unfurled 25 

We will go forth with swords and songs to slay 
This ravager of villages, this old, 

Bewitched, confused, malignant coil of hate, 
Belching green poisons ! In his dungeon-hold 

The captive queens in tears and hunger wait. 30 

Immortal Dream ! The fettered shall be free ! 

Yea, not these only ! All, who fettered lie ! 



254 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

Oh, Dream, who wilt not let us bow the knee, 

Let not this dragon's downfall satisfy 
Our reawakened passion for free hands, 

Free-ranging and unsaddled spirits, born 
5 To race against the wind on wide sea-strands 

And thunder up high glens ! Oh, silver horn, 
Calling us forth, help us remember, yea, 

Even now help us remember, while the Snake 
Sprawls yet unconquered on the world's highway 
10 And hills and cities to his roaring shake, 

Help us remember that the high crusade 

Whereon we here embark calls forth the free 
In hosts with spears and flaunting flags arrayed, 

Nor for one dragon's end, one victory, 
15 One last great war, but to unending war 

Without, within, till God's white torch, supreme, 
Melt the last chain; and the last dungeon-door 

Swing slowly wide to the triumphant dream ! 



God, who gavest men eyes 
20 To see a dream ; 

God, who gavest men heart 

To follow the Gleam ; 
God, who gavest men stars 
To find heaven by ; 
25 God, who madest men glad 

At need to die ; 
Lord, from the hills again 

We hear thy drum ! 
God, who lovest free men, 
30 God, who lovest free men, 

God, who lovest free men, 
Lead on ! We come. 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 255 

"LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD " (1917) 

By Henry van Dyke ° 

Thou warden of the western gate, above Manhattan Bay, 
The fogs of doubt that hid thy face are driven clean away : 
Thine eyes at last look far and clear, thou liftest high thy 

hand 
To spread the light of liberty world-wide for every land. 

No more thou dr earnest of a peace reserved alone for thee, 5 

While friends are fighting for thy cause beyond the guard- 
ian sea : 

The battle that they wage is thine; thou fallest if they 
fall; 

The swollen flood of Prussian pride will sweep unchecked 
o'er all. 

cruel is the conquer-lust in Hohenzollern brains : 

The paths they plot to gain their goal are dark with shame- 
ful stains : 10 

No faith they keep, no law revere, no god but naked 
Might ; — 

They are the foemen of mankind. Up, Liberty, and 
smite ! 

Britain, and France and Italy, and Russia newly born, 
Have waited for thee in the night. Oh, come as comes 

the morn ! 
Serene and strong and full of faith, America, arise, is 

With steady hope and mighty help to join thy brave 

Allies. 

dearest country of my heart, home of the high desire, 
Make clean thy soul for sacrifice on Freedom's altar-fire : 
For thou must suffer, thou must fight, until the war-lords 

cease, 
And all the peoples lift their heads in liberty and peace. 20 



256 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 

AMERICA AND HER ALLIES (1917) 
By Washington Gladden ° 

O Land of lands, my Fatherland, 

The beautiful, the free, 
All lands and shores to freedom dear, 

Are ever dear to thee ; 
s All sons of freedom hail thy name 

And wait thy word of might, 
While round the world the lists are joined 

For liberty and light. 

Hail sons of France, old comrades dear ! 
10 Hail Britons brave and true ! 

Hail Belgian martyrs ringed with flame ! 

Slavs fired with visions new ! 
Italian lovers mailed with light ! 
Dark brothers from Japan ! 
15 From East to West all lands are kin 

Who live for God and man. 

Here endeth war ! Our bands are sworn ! 

Now dawns the better hour, 
When lust of blood shall cease to rule, 
20 When peace shall come with power ; 

We front the fiend that rends our race, 

And fills our homes with gloom ; 
We break his scepter, spurn his crown, 

And nail him to his tomb ! 

25 Now hands all 'round, our troth we plight, 

To rid the world of lies, 
To fill all hearts with truth and trust, 
And willing sacrifice ; 



AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 257 

To free all lands from hate and spite, 

And fear from strand to strand ; 
To make all nations neighbors, 

And the world one Fatherland ! 



AMERICAN CONSECRATION HYMN (1918) 
By Percy MacKaye 



THOU, who long ago 5 

Didst move the hearts of men 
Their freedom's worth to know, 

America ! 
Now move our hearts again 
To rise for all men's right, IO 

And, strong in liberty, 

Go forth to fight, 

Go forth to fight, 
Forth to fight 
For thee ! 



Chorus 



is 



For right, more dear than peace, 
For hope, that bears release 
To slavish agonies, 

Our swords are drawn; 
And they shall rest no more 20 

Till yonder blood-red seas 

And hell-dark shore 

Are white with dawn. 



258 AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PROSE AND VERSE 



II 

Not bound by earthly loam 
Art thou, nor sheltering hill : 
Thou art our spirits' home, 
America ! 
5 Our home, that lures us still 

To build beyond war's grave, 
And, where God's watch-fires gleam, 
Go forth to save, 
Go forth to save, 
ic Forth to save 

Our dream. 



in 

land, whose living soul 
Hast led all tribes to seek 
Their Godward star and goal, 

America ! 
Now bid thy beacon speak 
In fire, and let thy bright 
Auroral stars, unfurled, 
Go forth to light, 
20 Go forth to light, 

Forth to light 
The world ! 



15 



NOTES 

Patrick Henry's Speech on Liberty (Page 1) 

Patrick Henry (1736-1799) is said to have been the 
greatest orator of American Revolutionary days. He 
had an impatient zeal for freedom and liberty. From 
1765 to his death in 1799 he was a real leader in Virginia 
public affairs and in the nation. He was twice governor 
of Virginia, and Washington wanted him to become 
chief -justice of the Supreme Court, but he did not accept 
this offer. He was one of the most popular men in the 
country, renowned for eloquence, and hailed as the cham- 
pion of constitutional liberty. He was a delegate to the 
convention that ratified for Virginia the Federal Con- 
stitution, and, though at first opposed to some of its pro- 
visions, took a part in shaping the Constitution he had 
opposed. Washington and Henry both died in the same 
year, 1799. 

The English Parliament passed the Stamp Act, March, 
1765. The object of this Act was to secure money in 
America from the colonists to help defray the expenses 
of a small standing army in America. This proposal 
seemed reasonable and necessary, for English troops were 
at that time defending the colonists against Indian up- 
risings. The colonists were asked to contribute only 
about one-third of the necessary money for the purpose, 
and every cent of the money to be raised in America was 
to be spent in America. Only nine days after he entered 
the Virginia Assembly, Henry, after waiting patiently 
for older members to speak, delivered an impassioned 
speech in which he moved a set of seven resolutions de- 
nouncing the Stamp Act. Some of the members of the 
Assembly characterized Henry's propositions as treason- 
able. They were passed, however. 

259 



260 NOTES 

Just about one decade later, March 23, 1775, Henry 
stoutly and resolutely defended the cause of liberty and 
freedom. It was on this occasion that he delivered the 
speech we are studying. The Second Revolutionary 
Convention of Virginia was considering the establish- 
ment of a militia for purposes of defense. This militia, 
in Henry's opinion, should take the place of mercenary 
troops hired by England and placed in the colonies. He 
therefore moved that such a militia be established. Again 
he found strong opposition to his plan, for there were 
pacifists in the Convention who feared such revolutionary 
measures. Henry could no longer restrain himself. lie 
arose and delivered this Liberty Speech, virtually calling 
Virginia to arms against England. His resolutions were 
adopted, and a committee was appointed to put the reso- 
lutions into effect. Among others, the committee in- 
cluded George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. 

How grave Henry's speech must have seemed to many 
may be judged by Benjamin Franklin's statement to Lord 
Chatham in 1774 : "I have never heard from any person 
drunk or sober the least expression of a wish for separa- 
tion." Washington also said, even so late as when he 
went to take command of the colonial army, that the 
thought of independence was abhorrent^ to him. John 
Adams said that in 1775 he was avoided in the streets of 
Philadelphia "like a man infected with leprosy" for his 
leanings toward "independency." 

In this speech the spirit of the crusader and prophet 
is easily discernible. 

Declaration of Independence (Page 5) 

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) wrote this document 
"without reference to book or pamphlet," as he himself 
said. His draft of it was changed somewhat by other 
members of the Committee on Independence and by the 
Congress. 

Jefferson was born in Virginia and was of Welsh descent. 
He was not rich, though he inherited an estate from his 
father. He made shrewd purchases, and by the time he 



NOTES 261 

was thirty years old he owned some five thousand acres 
of land and fifty slaves. His chief source of income was 
his law practice. Hardship had no share in his education. 
He was an exceedingly patriotic man, laboriously serving 
his country for nearly half a century. He entered the 
Virginia Assembly in 1769, and became a delegate to the 
Continental Congress in 1775. He was governor of 
Virginia for two years (1779-1780) ; was minister to 
France from 1784 to 1789 ; was Secretary of State in Wash- 
ington's Cabinet for four years (1790-1793) ; and was 
Vice-President of the United States from 1797 until his 
election to the Presidency in 1801. 

Professor West in his American History and Govern- 
ment says of Jefferson: "From 1801 to 1809 American 
history is sometimes called 'the biography of Thomas 
Jefferson.' The nation believed in him ; Congress swayed 
to his wishes. He was an intellectual aristocrat, but the 
prophet of democracy; a theorist of the wildest specu- 
lations, but an astute practical politician upon all im- 
mediate problems ; yet he was a shy man, averse to public 
speaking or public appearances, but a popular dictator." 
Jefferson selected the epitaph for his resting place : 
"Author of the Declaration of Independence, of the 
statute of Virginia for Religious freedom, and Father of 
the University of Virginia." One of Jefferson's biog- 
raphers said: "If America is right, Thomas Jefferson 
was right." 

It should be remembered that the idea of independence 
was a growth. History shows that the thought of actual 
independence from England was denounced by Conti- 
nental Congresses, by provincial conventions, and by 
leading statesmen, among them Washington (October, 
1774, May and June, 1775) ; Franklin (March, 1775) ; 
Jefferson (September, 1775) ; John Jay (after September, 
1775). In February, 1776, the South Carolina convention 
protested and condemned expressions of independence 
from Gadsden. American chaplains prayed for George III 
for months after Bunker Hill, and as late as March, 1776, 
Maryland instructed her delegates not to consent to any 



262 NOTES 



proposal of independence. There can be no question 
about the honesty of these expressions. But Americans 
were ready to declare for independence and to fight for 
it when they were finally convinced that debate and 
petition could not change the stubborn attitude of King 
George III toward the rights of the colonists. The 
causes for the Revolution and the separation from Eng- 
land are easily seen by reading the Declaration itself, 
which is preserved for us at Washington, D. C. The 
fifty-six members of the Congress who signed it were, 
under English law, traitors and subject to the fate of 
traitors. Ever since its adoption it has been an exceed- 
ingly great force in advancing democracy throughout the 
world. Every American should read it carefully and 
ponder its significance. 



The Nature of the Federal Constitution (Page 9) 

Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was born in the West 
Indies and was educated at King's College (now Co- 
lumbia University), New York City. When the Revo- 
lution broke out he joined the army, was appointed a 
captain of artillery, and did noteworthy and effective 
work. He was a famous lawyer and was in the Congress 
of the Confederation for a time (1782-1783). Washington 
appointed him Secretary of the Treasury in 1789. His 
genius for finance saved the United States from ruin. He 
and Jefferson were bitter political opponents. "Except 
for Hamilton," says West, "there would hardly have 
been a Nation for Jefferson to Americanize.' ' Aaron Burr, 
while Vice-President of the United States, was a candidate 
for governor of New York. He was defeated in the elec- 
tion, and he laid his defeat to Hamilton, his personal and 
political enemy. Burr forced a duel on Hamilton and 
fatally shot him at Weehawken, New Jersey, July 11, 
1804. The next day Hamilton died. He was forty- 
seven years old. 

When the Federal Constitution was up for ratification 
or rejection by New York state, a vote against it by New 



NOTES 263 



York, or Massachusetts, or Virginia would in all proba- 
bility have caused its rejection as the Constitution of 
our country. New York's ratification of it was due al- 
most wholly to Hamilton. West in his American History 
and Government says: "Never did his [Hamilton's] splen- 
did intellect render his country nobler service. Day by 
day against almost hopeless odds, and for a time almost 
alone in debate, by powerful logic and gentle persuasion, 
he beat down and wore away the two- thirds majority 
against the Constitution, until at last the greater leaders 
of the opposition came frankly to his side." New York 
voted for the Constitution 30 to 27. But two votes in 
its convention of fifty-seven would have defeated it. 
Hamilton himself said that four-sevenths of the popula- 
tion of New York state was opposed to the Union. Hamil- 
ton was by no means satisfied with the Constitution, 
but he championed it because his mind was of a practical 
nature, because he had a natural horror of schism. Much 
of his patriotic work in getting New York to adopt the 
Constitution was done through the Federalist, of which 
he was joint-author. This is a collection of essays that 
appeared in New York newspapers week after week and 
later were published in book form. It is one of the 
greatest books of the world, and one of the wisest and 
best discussions of the Constitution. 



Washington's Farewell Address (Page 21) 

George Washington (1732-1799) had charge of a small 
force of soldiers in Pontiac's War (1763), when he was 
about thirty years old. He was a member of the First 
Continental Congress, which met at Philadelphia, Sep- 
tember 5, 1774. The Second Continental Congress 
chose Washington commander-in-chief of the Continental 
forces, June 15, 1775. These forces were to defend 
American liberty, then known as the "immemorial rights 
of Englishmen." He was "the one indispensable man of 
the Revolution." And we are told that he and the French 
alliance (1778) saved the Revolution. Washington was 
a master of detail and learned from his own defeats. He 



264 NOTES 



usually kept himself under control, was long-suffering 
and patient, though he possessed a hot and impetuous 
temper. He was inaugurated in Federal Hall, Wall 
Street, New York City, April 30, 1789. Washington 
liked ceremony and was aristocratic in his inclinations. 
He believed in a liberal interpretation of the Constitution. 
That is," he believed that the Congress had "implied 
power" to carry out any of the powers granted to the 
Congress by the Constitution. While riding over his 
farm at Mount Vernon, Va., December 12, 1799, he was 
overtaken by showers of rain and sleet. The next day 
he wrote out his will and handed it to his wife. He knew 
he was not to live long, and he is reported to have said 
to his old friend and physician, Dr. Craik : "I die hard, 
but I am not afraid to go." To his secretary, Mr. Lear, 
he gave directions about his funeral. On Saturday night, 
December 14, 1799, between ten and eleven o'clock, he 
died. His last words were: "It is well." 

Washington's celebrated Farewell Address was given 
September 17, 1796. It is largely devoted to the con- 
sideration of (1) the unity of government; (2) dangers 
to the Union ; (3) the harmfulness of unrestrained party 
spirit ; (4) the elements of National strength and security, 
and (5) the treatment of foreign nations. In it he advised 
his countrymen to keep out of "permanent alliances with 
any. portion of the foreign world." Jefferson is the one 
who advised against "entangling alliances." 

This Address will not be fully understood unless the 
political beliefs and tendencies from 1792 to 1800 are 
considered. In any true sense there were no political 
parties in the early years of Washington's administration, 
though during the period of the adoption of the Con- 
stitution there were the Federalists (strongly in favor of 
the Constitution) and the anti-Federalists. Within a 
few months after its adoption party lines vanished. But 
the strongly contrasted views of Hamilton and Jefferson 
(both of whom were in Washington's "Cabinet") caused 
men to be for or against government policies. Men 
grouped themselves, on the one hand, into those who 



NOTES 265 



believed in an aristocratic form of government, com- 
mercial interests, a strong central government, and Eng- 
lish sympathies, and on the other hand, into those who 
believed in a democratic form of government, agricul- 
tural interests, weak central government, and French 
sympathies. Hamilton was a recognized leader of the 
first group and Jefferson of the second group. About 
1792 (Washington was unanimously reelected - in 1793) 
these opposing views led to the formation of new 
political parties — the new Federalist • (that of Hamil- 
ton), and the Republican (that of Jefferson) — very 
unfortunately largely sectional, the North being mainly 
Federalist, and the South decidedly Republican (Demo- 
cratic). Jefferson actually believed his political op- 
ponents intended to overthrow the Republic, and they 
thought he was planning to destroy organized society. 
The Federalists had a deep distrust and disbelief in popular 
government, that is, in government by the people. Thus 
we see that those holding opposite political beliefs deeply 
distrusted each other. Hence the timeliness of Wash- 
ington's remarks on the spirit of party feeling at the close 
of his second term when political controversies were ex- 
ceedingly bitter, and National disruption might follow. 



Jefferson's First Inaugural (Page 40) 

In this address Jefferson speaks of "the contest of 
opinion through which we have passed, the animation of 
discussion and of exertions," and says, "let us, then, 
fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind." He 
also reminds his hearers that "during the throes and 
convulsions of the ancient world ... it was not wonder- 
ful that the agitation of the billows should reach even 
this distant and peaceful shore . . . and should divide 
opinions as to measures of safety," and that "I know, 
indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican 
government cannot be strong, that this Government is 
not strong enough." 

What is the meaning of these remarks ? The presi- 
dential campaign of 1800 marks a turning point in Ameri- 



266 NOTES 

can political history. It witnesses the introduction of 
Jeffersonian. Republicanism, "as real a revolution in the 
principles of our government, as that of 1776 was in its 
form." The Federalist party remained in power from 
1793 to 1801, but it was decidedly weak by 1800 because 
it was out of touch with the tendency of the times. It 
was aristocratic in nature and felt deep distrust of the 
masses, whereas the people of this time were determined 
to be their own government. John Adams was President 
from 1797 to 1801. He had an affection for monarchic 
forms, though he was one of the men largely responsible 
for the American Revolution against George III. The 
Federalists tried to keep Jefferson out of the presidency 
even after he was elected to it. Not being successful in 
this attempt, they passed legislation creating additional 
Federal judgeships, many more than the judicial business 
of the country demanded. President John Adams, a 
Federalist, appointed Federalist friends, whom the people 
had defeated at the polls for elective government positions, 
to fill these new judgeships, thus placing them where 
the people could not vote against them. So partisan was 
President Adams that he would not wait to shake hands 
with the new President, Thomas Jefferson, but hurried 
away to his home in Massachusetts. Every sign of 
aristocracy was repugnant to Jefferson. He had deep 
confidence in the common, plain people of America. The 
Nation believed in him. 

Within seven days from the inauguration of Washington, 
the French Revolution broke out and kept Europe in 
continuous warfare for twenty years. _ It colored the 
politics of America during the whole period, and involved 
the United States in war with France (the French naval 
war of 1798-1800), and with England (the war of 1812). 
Jefferson was pro-French in attitude. 

Under such domestic and foreign troubles it is pleasant 
indeed to note the decidedly conciliatory tone of Jeffer- 
son in this his first Inaugural address, which shows above 
all things else his deep faith in democracy and his explicit 
trust in the ability of the common man to govern himself. 



NOTES 267 



Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural 
Address (Pages 45 and 46) 

Lincoln (1809-1865) wrote up his own biography as 
follows : 

4 'Born, February 12, 1809, in Harden County, Ken- 
tucky ; 

1 ' Education defective ; 

"Profession, a lawyer ; 

"Have been a captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk 
War; 

"Postmaster at a very small office; 

"Four times a member of the Illinois Legislature; 

"And was a member of the lower house of Congress 
(1847-1849)." 

It is reported that he once said in a conversation: "I 
never went to school more than six months of my life." 
In 1860 he wrote of his own education : ' ' What he has 
in the way of education he has picked up. After he was 
twenty-three, and had separated from his father, he studied 
English grammar. He studied and nearly mastered the 
six books of Euclid (geometry) since he was a member of 
Congress. He regrets his want of education, and does 
what he can to supply the want." 

Lincoln belonged to the Whig party; later became 
leader of the Republican party (formed 1856) ; was its 
second presidential candidate, being elected by that 
party as President in 1860; and was reelected by that 
party in 1864. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth in 
Ford's Theatre in Washington, April 14, 1865. Lee had 
surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, Va., April 9, just 
five days before. Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin M. 
Stanton, as he stood by the bedside of the martyred 
President, gave expression to six words which, perhaps 
more than any others, justly rate this kind-hearted, noble 
American : "Now he belongs to the ages." 

Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania wished to make of 
Cemetery Hill a National burying-ground. We are told 
that over 3500 Northern soldiers were buried there who 



268 NOTES 

died to save the Union in the greatest battle of the Civil 
War (July 1-3, 1863) near Gettysburg. This was the 
most critical moment of the war, General Lee being 
in command against General Meade. Doctor Junius B. 
Remensnyder gives an account in The Outlook of Febru- 
ary 13, 1918, of this address. He was not more than 
thirty feet from President Lincoln on this occasion. The 
orator of the day was not Lincoln, but the Hon. Edward 
Everett, a most cultured speaker. At the conclusion of 
his address, the President of the Cemetery Association 
asked President Lincoln to dedicate the cemetery. 
> All Gettysburg was alive with crowds, soldiers, dis- 
tinguished Americans, banners, and music. President 
Lincoln, riding on horseback, led the procession to Ceme- 
tery Hill. Mr. Everett spoke for about two hours in 
elegant diction and in a cultured manner. Lincoln 
seemed to be burdened by the length of the address. He 
sat in a very tall rocker, swaying restlessly to and fro, 
assuming all manner of attitudes, our reporter tells us, 
and when the polished orator was through, he arose, ad- 
justed his glasses, and with no oratorical show began to 
read his address, written on a large sheet or sheets of 
paper which fluttered in his hand. Lincoln's simple 
power and pathos held his hearers spellbound. Says 
Dr. Remensnyder: "The time, in the midst of the great 
war for the Union; the scene, the crucial battlefield of 
the struggle, the hills and the woods about us still echoing 
with the roar of guns and artillery ; and, above all, the 
thousands of hero graves encircling us, contributed to 
heighten the moral grandeur of the moment. Then, too, 
more impressive even than the address, the personality 
of the man himself, incarnating the great issues, shone 
forth with a compelling power." 

This address is considered one of the two or three most 
memorable in the political annals of the human race. 

Lincoln was elected again in November, 1864, by an 
electoral vote of 212 to 21. General McClellan, nomi- 
nated by the Democrats, was Lincoln's opponent. At 
one time Lincoln himself had slight hopes of being re- 



NOTES 269 

elected. Though he was the candidate of the Republican 
party, there was powerful opposition in it to his renomi- 
nation. Many thought Lincoln too slow and too con- 
servative in dealing with the rebellion. The opposition 
platform in substance declared the war a failure, and 
demanded that "immediate effort be made for the ces- 
sation of hostilities." President Davis of the Confederacy 
had declared that he would listen to no offers of peace 
except on the ground that the North recognize the inde- 
pendence of the Confederacy. Grant's Wilderness cam- 
paign (May-June, 1864) had brought no comfort to the 
Administration. The people had become weary of the 
long war, which seemed less hopeful than a few months 
before. But the military situation from August to well 
into October had aroused new hopes. Farragut, Sherman, 
and Sheridan had won victories for the Union, which were 
the most powerful arguments for the Republican cause. 

When Lincoln drove to the Capitol to be inaugurated 
for the second time, a rain was falling, and the day was 
gloomy. As Lincoln was about to take the oath, how- 
ever, the sun burst through the clouds, which Lincoln 
said made his "heart jump." " The people listened to his 
inaugural, awed by solemn and stately beauty, gaz- 
ing upon him as if he were a prophet speaking by in- 
spiration." Lincoln himself seemed to prefer this In- 
augural to any of his other papers. Of it he said in writing 
to a friend: "I expect the latter to wear as well as — 
perhaps better than — anything I have produced." Few 
state papers have expressed in such effective language 
the deep emotion and the feeling of religious aspiration 
and hope.. 

The Monroe Doctrine (Page 48) 

James Monroe (1758-1831) was the fifth President of 
the United States. When still in his teens he fought 
for the cause of freedom in the New World in the Ameri- 
can Revolution. He held many prominent public posi- 
tions. He was governor of Virginia, Senator of the United 
States, minister to both England and France, President 



270 NOTES 

Madison's Secretary of State, and twice President of 
the United States. He died in New York City, July 
4, 1831. 

Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Spanish dynasty 
and placed his brother Joseph upon the Spanish throne, 
June 6, 1808. This changed existing European conditions 
at that time. The fact that the Spanish colonies in South 
America were oppressed by heavy taxation, commercial 
hardships, and bad governors led them to break away 
from Spain (1807-1825). They proclaimed themselves 
republics, and were recognized by President Monroe as 
independent nations May 4, 1822. The allied powers 
of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and France (the Holy Alliance) 
pledged themselves to restore all the " legitimate thrones " 
which the Napoleonic wars had overthrown, and their 
intention was to restore also to Spain her rebellious 
colonies in South America. Great Britain invited the 
United States to join with her in warning the Holy Al- 
liance not to disturb the new South American republics. 
Although President Monroe, ex-Presidents Madison and 
Jefferson all heartily approved Great Britain's suggestion, 
yet Secretary of State J. Q. Adams convinced President 
Monroe that we ought not to follow England's lead, but 
rather assume full and sole responsibility ourselves for 
the protection of the republics on the American continent. 
In his annual message to Congress of December 2, 1823, 
the President issued the famous statement which has 
since been known as the Monroe Doctrine. It is not a 
part of international law, since no foreign nations have 
officially accepted it as binding upon them. America's 
entrance into the World War of 1914 is a fulfillment of 
this Doctrine, and is not in opposition to it. If the 
United States should join a League of Nations to Enforce 
Peace, this act would be a still greater fulfillment of the 
Monroe Doctrine. The object of that Doctrine is to 
protect and defend democracy in the New World from 
the autocracy of the Old World. 



NOTES 271 



The Bunker Hill Monument (Page 51) 

Daniel Webster's (1782-1852) ancestors were Puritans 
and came from England. His family settled in New 
Hampshire in 1636. The Websters were numerous in 
this colony, and Daniel's father, Ebenezer Webster, did 
noteworthy service in the French and Indian War. He 
also captained two hundred fellow settlers in the battles 
of the Revolution. His father became a judge in his own 
town, Salisbury, New Hampshire, though he never had 
a day's schooling in his life. Daniel was born in this town, 
January 18, 1782. When young he was frail, and because 
of this was kept out of school for a time, yet he learned 
much from nature, from everything he could find to read, 
and from committing good literature to memory. He 
was sent to Phillips Exeter Academy when fourteen years 
old ; but in February, 1797, he was put under a private 
teacher, and was overjoyed when he learned that his 
father, poor as he was, intended to send him to college. 
According to accepted standards Daniel was poorly pre- 
pared to enter Dartmouth College in ilugust, 1797. But, 
once in, he became the foremost student there. He was 
proficient in Latin, and in knowledge of history and litera- 
ture was superior to any other student in Dartmouth. 
He graduated in 1801, and entered the law office of a 
neighboring lawyer. In order to keep his older brother 
in college at Dartmouth, Daniel gave up his law studies 
and began to teach school in Maine. He was a suc- 
cessful teacher. Later, after his brother graduated, he 
went to Boston and was admitted to the practice of law 
in 1805. He was opposed to the War of 1812. This 
opposition led him to make public addresses, and as a 
result he was sent to Congress twice. He was Secretary 
of State under Harrison and Tyler (1841), and when Fill- 
more became President, in 1850, became for the second 
time Secretary of State. He was twice an unsuccessful 
candidate for the presidency, 1844 and 1848. Webster 
died October 23, 1852. He is considered one of the 
most remarkable men in American history. 



272 tfOTES 

The monument on Bunker Hill was erected to Dr. 
Joseph Warren, who was shot down by the British forces 
in the battle of Bunker Hill, June 16, 1775. Warren 
was a major-general in the Continental Army. This 
monument was dedicated to the cause of democracy and 
liberty, June 17, 1825, half a century after the battle. 
Daniel Webster was president of the Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment Association at the time of the laying of the corner 
stone. General Lafayette assisted Webster in the cere- 
mony. It is said that fully twenty thousand people 
were present, among them two hundred veterans of the 
Revolution. The celebration of the completion of the 
monument was held June 17, 1843, at which time Webster, 
then Secretary of State, was again the orator. The 
monument itself is a noteworthy achievement, being 
built of granite, and rising to the height of one hundred 
and twenty-one feet. This oration is unquestionably a 
work of art and a masterpiece of literature. It offers the 
student an excellent opportunity ^ to study good style in 
oratory. The unity of the oration is pronouncedly no- 
ticeable. Among other things the reader should note 
Webster's deep feeling of the great changes during fifty 
years of our history, and the great influence of our country 
on human freedom and human happiness. 

The American Union (Page 74) 

In 1828 Congress passed a tariff bill known as the 
11 Tariff of Abominations," which met bitter opposition, 
especially in the southern states. John C. Calhoun, the 
Vice-President, drew up an "Exposition and Protest" in 
which he denounced the tariff "as an act of tyranny on 
the part of the majority, and as directly contrary to the 
evident spirit of the Constitution." He also claimed 
that a protective tariff was unconstitutional, and that 
any state, in case it considered an Act of Congress^ in- 
jurious and unconstitutional, had a constitutional right 
peacefully to nullify the law within her borders until such 
time as an amendment to the Constitution made the law 
constitutional. South Carolina did not press this matter 



NOTES 273 



at once because she expected that President Jackson, 
elected in November, 1828, would come to her aid. 

In the first Congress under Jackson an inquiry was 
proposed (1830) respecting the sale of public lands. The 
resolution on this matter led to the great debate between 
Webster and Hayne on the floor of the Senate (Janu- 
ary 19-29, 1830), and to the greatest speech ever delivered 
by a member in the halls of Congress — Webster's reply 
to Hayne, from which the paragraphs on "The American 
Union " are taken. Hayne supported the doctrine of 
Calhoun in his exposition. Daniel Webster replied show- 
ing the unreasonableness of the doctrine of nullification 
and the soundness of the doctrine of the indissolubility 
of the American Union. The question under discussion 
went to the very foundations of the American system 
of government. The question was : Did the Constitu- 
tion create an indestructible nation, or did it simply 
establish a league of states, each of which was sovereign 
and possessed of authority to break up the Union? Presi- 
dent Jackson, to the great disappointment of the Demo- 
crats, supported Webster's position because he saw that 
the doctrine that a state had the right to decide for itself 
when it would obey Congress and when it would not was 
destructive of all true national government. Henry Clay 
secured a compromise tariff, March, 1833, and the crisis 
of civil strife was thereby averted. The effect of this 
speech was that patriotism had a new birth and thousands 
were made to feel that the Republic rested upon un- 
shakable foundations. 

Democracy (Page 76) 

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), an American poet 
of distinction, was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
February 22, 1819, the son of a preacher. He graduated 
from Harvard in 1838, and secured the degree of A.M. 
from that college in 1841. Soon after graduation he de- 
voted almost all of his time to literature, founding a 
magazine called the Pioneer in 1842. He contributed 
many political articles to various publications, in this 
way wielding considerable influence in the politics of his 



274 NOTES 

time. He published many volumes of verse and prose 
essays which have gained a permanent place among the 
classics of modern times. He succeeded Longfellow as 
professor of the French and Spanish languages in Harvard. 
He was editor of the Atlantic Monthly 'from 1857 to 1862, 
and with Charles Eliot Norton edited the North Ameri- 
can Review from 1863 to 1872. He became a member of 
the Republican party in 1856; was elected presidential 
elector in 1876 ; and was appointed, in 1877, minister to 
Spain by President Hayes. President Garfield appointed 
him minister to the court of St. James, London, in 1880. 
He delivered many public lectures, and was prized as 
an after-dinner speaker. The last years of his life were 
spent in the old Lowell homestead, "Elmwood," on the 
Charles River, Cambridge. 

These paragraphs, with the exception of the last, are 
taken from an address delivered by Lowell on assuming 
the presidency of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, 
Birmingham, England, October 6, 1884. The last para- 
graph is from another address by the same author. 

Two poems (pages 215 and 216) give evidence of the 
ardent patriotism of Mr. Lowell. 

Working of the American Democracy (Page 77) 

Charles Wilham Eliot (1834- ) was born at Boston, 
Massachusetts, and is a noteworthy educator. He gradu- 
ated from Harvard in 1853, was president of Harvard from 
1869 to 1909, and since has been president emeritus. 
He has been specially honored by France^ Japan, and 
Italy, and is a member of various distinguished foreign 
societies. He is a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation. 
He has delivered a great many noteworthy addresses on 
educational and scientific subjects, and is the author of 
more than a dozen books and pamphlets. An evidence 
of his being considered one of the foremost citizens of the 
American Republic is found in his having been offered the 
appointment of American Ambassador to the Court of 
St. James (London) by both President Taft and President 
Wilson. He declined both offers. 



NOTES 275 



This selection on American democracy from Doctor 
Eliot is taken from an address entitled "The Working 
of the American Democracy," which was delivered be- 
fore the fraternity Phi Beta Kappa, at Harvard Uni- 
versity, June 28, 1888. The address should be read in 
full, and likewise the address from which is taken "Five 
American Contributions to Civilization." (See page 79.) 
The latter was delivered at Chautauqua, August 19, 1896. 
These two addresses and sixteen other addresses and 
magazine articles constitute a volume by Dr. Eliot, which 
is entitled "American Contributions to Civilization." It 
is published by The Century Company, New York. 



Democracy (Page 80) 

Henry van Dyke (1852- ) was born at Germantown, 
Pennsylvania, November 10, 1852, and is a distinguished 
man of letters and a man of genuine and liberal culture. 
He is a graduate of Princeton University, and the recip- 
ient of numerous degrees from various American and 
foreign educational institutions. He was ordained to 
the Presbyterian ministry in 1879, and made a famous 
record as preacher, particularly while pastor of the Brick 
Presbyterian Church, New York City. He was professor 
of English literature at Princeton from 1900 to 1913, when 
he was appointed minister to Netherlands and Luxem- 
burg, by President Wilson. The list of books, both 
prose and poetry, of which he is author is a long one. 
They are known in many lands, having been translated 
into various languages. He is popular as college preacher, 
public lecturer, and after-dinner speaker. 

This selection on "Democracy," the one on "The 
Home as a Nation Builder," which follows (page 82), the 
one on "Education in a Republic" (page 84), and the one 
on page 85 are taken from Dr. van Dyke's book called 
Essays in Application. The selections are merely portions 
of the essays in the volume. The entire volume rings 
true to American ideals. It is published by Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons. 



^ 



276 NOTES 



The Typical American (Page 89) 

Nicholas Murray Butler (1862- ) is a noted publicist. 
He was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. No less than 
fifteen educational institutions have bestowed the hon- 
orary degree of LL.D. upon him, and in 1905 the Uni- 
versity of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of 
Litt.D. He has been president of Columbia University 
since January, 1902, and is a member or officer of more 
than a score of educational, literary, and political organi- 
zations, and is the author of a number of volumes dealing 
with educational, political, and philosophical subjects. 
He is greatly sought as lecturer and after-dinner speaker. 
Many of his epigrammatic statements, such as this one 
and others found in this volume, have been printed and 
widely circulated in the United States. 

Good Citizenship (Page 90) 

Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) was born at Caldwell, 
New Jersey. He was the son of a poor Presbyterian 
minister, and was of New England descent. He grew up 
in western New York, and supported himself as best he 
could by tending a country store. He taught in an asylum 
for the blind, and acted as clerk in a lawyer's office in 
Buffalo. He received his academic education in Clinton, 
New York. He studied law and was admitted to the 
bar in Buffalo. In 1881, when he was forty-five years 
old, he was elected mayor of the city of Buffalo on an 
independent ticket. From this position he was made 
governor of New York, and while governor was elected 
to the presidency of the United States, 1884. In 1888 
he was renominated, but defeated. But in 1892 he was 
returned to the presidency with a democratic majority in 
both houses of Congress. He was a ' ' self-made man. ' ' He 
died at Princeton, New Jersey. 

The Attitude of the Individual (Page 91) 

Charles Evans Hughes (1862- ) is a well-known 
American jurist, and political leader. He graduated 



NOTES 277 



from Brown University in 1881. He was admitted to the 
New York bar in 1884; practiced law in New York, 
1884-1891, 1893-1906 ; became professor of law at Cornell 
University in 1891, and held that position until 1893 ; 
was special lecturer, New York Law School, 1893-1900. 
He became nationally prominent owing to his investiga- 
tion of the record of some of the largest insurance com- 
panies in New York City, 1905-1906. In 1905 he was 
nominated for office of mayor of New York City by the 
Republican Convention, but declined. He became gover- 
nor of New York, January 1, 1907, and served as governor 
until he resigned, October 6, 1910. President Taft ap- 
pointed him associate justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States, May 2, 1910. This position he held 
until June, 1916, when he resigned, because he was nomi- 
nated for the presidency of the United States by the 
Republican party. He is a statesman of administrative 
political experience and a lawyer of a highly developed 
judicial mind. 

At Yale University $ach year is given a course of lectures 
on "The Responsibilities of Citizenship" by "a lecturer 
of distinguished attainments and high conception of civic 
responsibilities." The fund which makes possible these 
annual lectures on this most important topic was given 
to Yale University about 1900 by Mr. William E. Dodge. 
In 1910 Mr. Hughes was selected as the lecturer possess- 
ing the qualifications set forth by the founder of the fund 
as quoted above. The Yale University Press has now 
published more than a dozen volumes of these lectures. 
This selection from Mr. Hughes is from one of the four 
lectures in the 1910 series given by him at Yale. 



The Spirit of Self-Government (Page 96) 

Elihu Root (1845- ) was born in Clinton, New York. 
He graduated from Hamilton College in 1864, and taught 
at Rome Academy after his graduation. He studied law 
at New York University, receiving his LL.B. in 1867. 
Honorary degrees have been bestowed upon him by many 



278 NOTES 

American educational institutions, as well as by the Uni- 
versity of Buenos Aires, McGill University, the University 
of Leyden, and Oxford University. He was admitted to 
the bar in 1867, and practiced law in New York. From 
1883 to 1885 he was United States district attorney, 
Southern District of New York, was Secretary of War in 
the Cabinet of President McKinley, and Secretary of 
State in the Cabinet of President Roosevelt. He served 
as United States Senator from New York from 1909 
to 1915 ; was president of the New York Constitutional 
Convention in 1915. He was a member of the Alaskan 
Boundary Tribunal in 1903, and consul for the United 
States in the North Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration, 1910. 
In 1910 he became a member of the Permanent Court of 
Arbitration at The Hague, and in the same year was 
president of the Carnegie Endowment for International 
Peace. He was president of The Hague Tribunal of 
Arbitration between Great Britain, France, Spain, and 
Portugal concerning church property in 1913. In 1912 
he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1917 President 
Wilson appointed him head of a special diplomatic mission 
to Russia. 

4 'The Spirit of Self-Government' ' is the title of an 
address delivered by Elihu Root at the one hundred and 
forty-fourth anniversary banquet of the Chamber of 
Commerce of the State of New York, November 21, 1912. 

The Right of the People to Rule (Page 101) 

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) from 1901 to 1914 filled 
the stage of American public life perhaps more com- 
pletely and conspicuously than did any other American. 
Honors too numerous to be mentioned in full have been 
showered upon him. A long list of colleges and universi- 
ties have bestowed degrees upon him, among them 
Cambridge University, Oxford University, and the Uni- 
versity of Berlin. He was a member of the New York 
Legislature from 1882 to 1884 at the early age of twenty- 
four, and was a delegate to the Republican National Con- 



NOTES 279 

vention in 1884, where he opposed the nomination of 
James G. Blaine for the presidency. The next two years 
he spent on a ranch, roughing it in North Dakota, strength- 
ening his feeble health. He was appointed to the Civil 
Service Commission by President Harrison in 1889, and 
served on it until 1895. Then for two years he was 
president of the New York Police Board, and became as- 
sistant secretary of the navy in 1897, resigning (1898) to 
organize the First United States Cavalry (commonly 
spoken of as the Roosevelt Rough Riders) for the Spanish- 
American War. In that year he was made a colonel for 
bravery in battle in the Spanish War, and, returning to 
New York as a military hero, was elected governor of the 
Empire State in the autumn of the same year (1898). 
He was elected Vice-President of the United States, 
November 4, 1900, and succeeded to the presidency upon 
the death of William McKinley, September 14, 1901. 
On November 8, 1904, he was elected President of the 
United States by the largest majority, both in the electoral 
vote (336 to 140) and in the popular vote (7,624,489 to 
5,082,754), ever recorded in our history to that time, and 
by the largest plurality vote (2,545,515), ever given to 
any President of the United States. In 1912 he was the 
Progressive Party's candidate for the presidency. The 
Nobel Peace Prize, consisting of $40,000 and a medal, was 
awarded to him in 1906. 

These paragraphs on "The Right of the People to Rule" 
are the concluding ones of a speech delivered by Mr. 
Roosevelt at Carnegie Hall, New York City, under the 
auspices of the Civic Forum, Wednesday evening, 
March 20, 1912. In granting permission to reprint these 
paragraphs, Colonel Roosevelt wrote to the editor the 
following words : "That contains the sum of the principles 
for which I was fighting in 1912, for which I am fighting 
now, and for which I have always fought and always 
shall fight." They are well worth very serious study 
and thought. 



280 NOTES 

Political Routineer and Inventor (Page 104) 

Walter Lippmann (1889- ) was born in New York 
City, September 23. 1889, and took his A.B. degree from 
Harvard in 1909. He did graduate work in philosophy 
at Harvard during 1909-1910. Mr. Lippmann is the 
author of A Preface to Politics, Drift and Mastery, and The 
Stakes of Diplomacy. He is the editor of The Poems of 
Paul Mariett. 



The Meaning of the Flag (Page 105) 

Woodrow Wilson (1856- ) is the twenty-eighth Presi- 
dent of the United States. He was born in Staunton, Va., 
December 28, 1856. His father was a preacher. He is of 
Scotch-Irish ancestry. He graduated from Princeton 
College in 1879 ; graduated in law from the University 
of Virginia, 1881 ; practiced law at Atlanta, Georgia, 
1882-1883 ; and did post-graduate work at Johns Hop- 
kins, 1883-1885. He holds the degree of A.B. and A.M. 
from Princeton ; the degree of LL.D. from no less than 
nine colleges and universities, and the degree of Litt.D. 
from Yale. He taught history and political economy at 
Bryn Mawr College from 1885 to 1888, and was professor 
of the same subjects at Wesleyan University from 1888 to 
1890. From 1890 to 1910 he was a professor in Princeton 
University, and president of Princeton from August 1, 
1902, to October 20, 1910. He became governor of New 
Jersey, January, 1911, and served in that capacity until 
he resigned in March, 1913. The Democratic National 
Convention nominated him for President in 1912, to which 
office he was elected November 4, 1912. His political 
opponents in the 1912 election were Theodore Roosevelt, 
the Progressive candidate, and William Howard Taft, 
the Republican candidate. In 1916 he was reelected 
President. He is the author of numerous books and 
published addresses. He has become an international 
figure through his leadership of the United States during 
the Great War and through his interpretation of the higher 
purposes of the Allies in this struggle. 



NOTES 281 

4 'The Meaning of the Flag" is an address given by- 
President Wilson in June, 1915, and hence about two 
years before America entered the World War. It was 
delivered on June 14, from the south portico of the Treas- 
ury Building, Washington, D. C. The President reminds 
his hearers that "this is Flag Day," but points out that 
"there are no days of special patriotism." 

A League to Enforce Peace (Page 108) 

A. Lawrence Lowell (1856- ) is president of Harvard 
University, and has held that position since May 19, 1909. 
He practiced law at Boston from 1880 to 1897, and was 
professor of the science of government at Harvard from 
1900 to 1909. He is the author of several books dealing 
with politics, government, and public opinion. He has 
been and is a powerful factor in advancing the cause of 
international democracy by helping on the movement of 
a League of Nations to Enforce Peace. 

The date of this article from the Atlantic Monthly shows 
that the World War had been going on for over a year 
when President Lowell wrote it. The League to Enforce 
Peace was formed in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 
June 17, 1915. Dr. A. Lawrence Lowell is Chairman of 
the Executive Committee, and Ex-President William 
Howard Taft is President of the League. 

Patriotism (Page 117) 

This selection on patriotism by Dr. Butler was originally 
given as part of an address by him before the Newport 
Historical Society, Newport, R. I., August 15, 1915. In 
1917 it was copyrighted by Charles Scribner's Sons, and 
became part of a volume of addresses by Dr. Butler, which 
bears the title of A World in Ferment. In 1901 Presi- 
dent Wilson, then a professor in Princeton University, 
wrote the following about modern democracy: "As a 
matter of fact democracy as we know it is no older than 
the end of the eighteenth century. The doctrines which 
sustain it can scarcely be said to derive any support at 



282 KOTES 



all from the practices of the classical states. Modern 
democracy wears a very different aspect, and rests upon 
principles separated by the whole heaven from those of 
the Roman or Grecian democrat." 



Americanism (Page 119) 

This selection on Americanism by Mr. Roosevelt is a 
portion of an address by him delivered before the Knights 
of Columbus, Carnegie Hall, New York City, October 12, 
1915. The World War had been in progress somewhat 
over a year. In 1916 George H. Doran Company, New 
York, copyrighted this address along with other addresses, 
articles, and public statements by Mr. Roosevelt, and 
put them together in a volume entitled Fear God and 
Take Your Own Part. Mr. Roosevelt dedicated this 
book to Julia Ward Howe, who, he says, "was as good a 
citizen of the Republic as Washington and Lincoln them- 
selves." In his introductory note to the book, Colonel 
Roosevelt says that "the principles set forth in this book 
are simply the principles of true Americanism within and 
without our own borders." 



Pan-Americanism (Page 126) 

Robert Lansing (1864- ) is Secretary of State of 
the United States. He was born in Watertown, New 
York, October 17, 1864. He graduated from Amherst 
College in 1886, and in 1915 was honored by both Amherst 
and Colgate in being awarded the degree of LL.D. In 
1889 he was admitted to the bar, and was a member of 
the firm of Lansing & Lansing from 1889 to 1907. He was 
associate counsel for the United States in the Behring 
Sea Arbitration, 1892-1893; was solicitor for the United 
States in the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal in 1903 ; and 
served the Federal Government in various legal capacities 
up to June 23, 1915, when he was made Secretary of State 
by President Wilson. He is associate editor of the Ameri- 
can Journal of International Law. 



NOTES 283 



This address was delivered before the Second Pan- 
American Scientific Congress, held at Washington D. C, 
from December 27, 1915, to January 8, 1916. This Con- 
gress considered a multitude of subjects in pursuance of 
its ' ' high aims and purposes : namely, to increase the 
knowledge of things American ; to disseminate and to 
make the culture of each American country the heritage 
of all American republics ; to further the advancement 
of science by disinterested cooperation; to promote in- 
dustry, inter-American trade and commerce; and to de- 
vise ways and means of mutual helpfulness. " 

The first Pan-American Scientific Congress was held at 
Santiago in 1908. 

Individual Liberty and Responsibility of the Bar 

(Page 132) 

The address on Individual Liberty and the Responsi- 
bility of the Bar, from which the paragraphs here given 
were taken, was delivered by Mr. Root at the annual 
dinner of the New York State Bar Association, January 15, 
1916. It is fortunate that the addresses are collected in 
several volumes, covering the period of his services as 
Secretary of War, as Secretary of State, and as Senator 
of the United States, during which time, as he himself 
once said, his only client was his country. The Harvard 
University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, has pub- 
lished this edition. This address by Mr. Root is from 
the volume entitled Addresses on Government and Citi- 
zenship. The dinner at which this address was given 
was arranged specially to commemorate Mr. Root's 
reentry into the legal profession, after many years of 
absence from it "because of the engrossing character of 
duties in the Departments and in the Senate in Wash- 
ington." He said : "I have come back to my old friends 
and my old haunts and taken up the old course of going 
up and down town daily, as I used to forty or fifty years 
ago." 



284 NOTES 



Patriotism (Page 137) 

Lyman Abbott (1835- ) is a noted editor, author, 
and preacher. His birthplace is Roxbury, Massachusetts. 
He graduated from New York University in 1853, was 
admitted to the New York bar in 1856, and is still a 
member of it. In 1860 he was ordained to the Congre- 
gational ministry, and since then has served as pastor 
of a number of churches, the most noted of which was 
the Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn (1869- 
1899), where he succeeded the distinguished preacher, 
Henry Ward Beecher. He was associate editor with 
Henry Ward Beecher of The Christian Union, and since 
1893 he has been editor-in-chief of The Outlook. He has 
served as political and religious guide to hosts of Americans. 



What the Flag Means (Page 138) 

In June, 1916, Mr. Hughes, then a Justice of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, delivered this address 
to a graduating class in Washington, D. C. 



The Challenge (Page 142) 

Why did the United States enter the Great War? The 
answer is simple and sufficient. America believes in two 
kinds, and only two kinds, of wars. She believes in a 
war of self-defense, and in a war of rescue, liberation, 
emancipation, and freedom. America entered the Great 
War on the basis of self-defense and of rescue and freedom. 



The Great Struggle (Page 155) 

This is another illustration of Doctor Butler's epigram- 
matic statements which say so much in so small compass. 
There are several sentences in this short characterization 
that are worthy of serious discussion. 



NOTES 285 



The Menace (Page 156) 

This address by President Wilson states in a masterly 
way the real nature of German intrigue and aggression 
in this country, both before America entered the war and 
after she entered it. 

The Deliverers (Page 163) 

The Outlook began its existence in 1869 as The Christian 
Union, succeeding a small paper known as The Church 
Union. Its first editor-in-chief was Henry Ward Beecher. 
Dr. Lyman Abbott became associate editor with Mr. 
Beecher in 1876 and editor-in-chief in 1881 when Mr. 
Beecher retired, which position he still holds. 

The name of the paper was changed from The Christian 
Union to The Outlook in 1893. 



Why We Are Fighting Germany (Page 165) 

Franklin K. Lane (1864— ) was born in Prince 
Edward Island, Canada. He was appointed Secretary 
of the Interior by President Wilson, March 5, 1913. In 
early childhood he moved to California, and graduated 
from the University of California in 1886. He engaged 
in newspaper work early in life, and later acted as New 
York correspondent for western papers. He at one time 
was part owner and editor of the Tacoma Daily News. 
In 1889 he was admitted to the California bar and began 
the practice of law in San Francisco. In 1902 he ran for 
the governorship of California. From December, 1905, 
to March 4, 1913, he was a member of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission. The degree of LL.D. was 
conferred upon him in 1915 by New York University. 

A Just and Generous Peace (Page 172) 

This address of President Wilson should be remembered 
and studied, if for nothing else, for his laconic description 
of the present German Government as "a Thing without 



286 NOTES 

conscience or honor or capacity for covenanted peace." 
But there are other things for which it should be re- 
membered. It makes clear as crystal the issue that con- 
fronted the Allies (the United States included) in the 
Great War. In it he speaks the very thought of the 
American people. He and they would countenance no 
compromise to secure peace. Justice and equality of 
rights must be secured, whatever the cost, for all nations. 
It shows the necessity of a complete and lasting defeat 
of a nation whose God is Might, and which knows no law 
except the law of necessity. 

This address was delivered before a joint session of 
Congress, December 4, 1917, at Washington, D. C. 

National Unity (Page 183), and National Train- 
ing for National Service (Page 186) 

The Commercial Club of St. Louis, Missouri, was ad- 
dressed by Dr. Butler on February 16, 1918. His topic 
was "A Program of Constructive Progress." These two 
selections are from that address. 

The Newspaper (Page 189) 

Fred Newton Scott (1877- ) is professor of rhetoric 
in the University of Michigan. From that university he 
holds the degrees of A.B., A.M., and Ph.D. He is a 
well-known writer of books and contributor to magazines. 

"The Newspaper" constitutes inscriptions of ideals 
adopted by the well-known daily, The Detroit News, De- 
troit, Michigan. The author of the ideals of " The News- 
paper " is Professor Fred Newton Scott of the University of 
Michigan. Of course The Detroit News does not claim to 
live up completely to these ideals, but the courage to set 
them forth as its ideals, and the attempt to live up to them, 
are highly commendable, and indicate the spirit and the 
function of the American daily. These ideals should be 
learned by heart by every American citizen and trans- 
muted into character. 



NOTES 287 



Force to the Utmost (Page 190) 

This address by President Wilson, familiarly known as 
his "Force to the Utmost" speech, was delivered at Balti- 
more, Maryland, April 6, 1918. He went to Baltimore 
to discuss the third Liberty Loan. When this address 
was given, Americans were no longer under an illusion 
about the Prussian menace. They knew that if Germany 
should win in Europe, her next attack in her design to 
dominate the world would be against the United States 
and South America. Americans had come to feel by this 
time more than ever that they were fighting to make their 
own homes safe for their children, as well as to make the 
world safe for democracy. 

The American's Creed (Page 194) 

William Tyler Page (1868- \ who is now minority 
clerk of the House of Representatives, Washington, D. C, 
was born at Frederick, Maryland, October 19, 1868. He 
attended the Frederick Academy, and the public schools 
of Baltimore, and on December 19, 1881, he entered the 
service of the House of Representatives as a page. Since 
then he has served in the House continuously, holding the 
following positions : file clerk, journal clerk, tally clerk, 
clerk to the Committee on Accounts, minority clerk of 
the House. In the 65th Congress he was the Republican 
nominee for Clerk of the House, and was Republican 
nominee for Congress from the second district of Mary- 
land in 1902. He is the author of Page's Congressional 
Handbook, and collaborated in the preparation of the 
House Manual of Rules and Parliamentary Practice. 

"Gassing" the World's Mind (Page 195) 

William Thomas Ellis (1873- ) is one of America's 
well-known writers. He has traveled extensively through- 
out the world. He was born in Alleghany, Pennsylvania. 
He has been editorially connected with a number of 
Philadelphia dailies; was editor of the International 



288 NOTES 

Christian Endeavor organ, 1894-1897 ; editor of Forward, 
a Presbyterian weekly, 1897-1902; Philadelphia Press 
editor, 1903-1908. He has lectured and made addresses 
in all parts of the United States, and is the author of a 
number of volumes dealing particularly with religious 
topics. 

Independence Bell (Page 203) 

It is not known who wrote these verses entitled "In- 
dependence Bell," but a few facts about the circumstances 
leading to the writing of this selection can be given. The 
Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, in the 
State House (Independence Hall) May 10, 1775. On 
June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved 
"That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to 
be, free and independent states." John Adams of Massa- 
chusetts seconded the motion. Later a committee of five 
was appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence. 
Jefferson drew up the paper, though some changes were 
made in it by the committee and by Congress. It was 
adopted on the evening of July 4, 1776. When it was 
adopted, the event was announced by ringing the old 
State House bell, which bore the inscription, "Proclaim 
Liberty Throughout the Land, to All the Inhabitants 
Thereof!" The venerable bellman had his grandson 
stand at the door of the hall, to await the announcement 
of the event by the door keeper. When the grandson 
was given the signal, he rushed to where he could see his 
grandfather, and shouted, "Ring, ring, ring!" 



Hail, Columbia (Page 205) 

Joseph HopMnson (1770-1842), an American jurist, 
was born in Philadelphia, November 12, 1770. He gradu- 
ated from the University of Pennsylvania, 1786, and 
practiced law in Easton, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia. 
He conducted the defense in the impeachment trial of As- 
sociate Justice Samuel Chase, and was a Representative 
in Congress from 1817 to 1819. President J. Q. Adams 



NOTES 289 



appointed him judge for the Eastern District of Pennsyl- 
vania, 1828-1842. He wrote many addresses and articles 
as well as "Hail, Columbia.' * He died in Philadelphia, 
January 15, 1842. 

The Star-Spangled Banner (Page 207) 

Francis Scott Key (1780-1843), lawyer and poet, was 
born in Frederick County, Maryland, August 9, 1780. 
He graduated from St. John's College, Annapolis, Mary- 
land, practiced law at Frederick in 1801, and later after 
going to Washington became district attorney of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. He was buried in Mount Olivet 
Cemetery, Frederick, Maryland. 

Shortly before the close of the War of 1812, the British 
bombarded Fort McHenry. During this action Key was 
held a prisoner by the British aboard a small ship. He 
was in extreme suspense about the outcome of this en- 
gagement, and was relieved in the early dawn by the sight 
of the Stars and Stripes still floating over the fort. Under 
inspiration of this sight, he wrote on the back of a letter 
the first draft of "The Star-Spangled Banner." It be- 
came popular almost immediately upon being printed. 
A large national flag is kept floating over Key's grave. 



The American Flag (Page 208) 

Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) was a poet and 
newspaper contributor, who was born in New York City. 
His father and mother both died when he was very young. 
From childhood he showed a special talent for writing 
poetry. He entered business life, but did not like it, and 
then decided in 1813 to study medicine, which he began 
to practice three years later. In 1819 he made daily 
contributions to the New York Evening Post. He died 
in New York City, September 21, 1820. 



290 NOTES 



America (Page 210) 

Samuel Francis Smith (1808-1895) was born in Boston, 
attended the Boston Latin School, and graduated from 
Harvard, 1829, and from the Andover Theological Semi- 
nary in 1832. He was a Baptist minister, and taught 
modern languages at Colby University, 1834-1841. He 
edited several religious periodicals, and besides being the 
author of ''America," he wrote many other productions, 
among which are "The Morning Light is Breaking," and 
" Rock of Ages." He died in Boston, November 16, 1895. 

Concord Hymn (Page 211) 

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), an American 
philosopher and poet of renown, was born in Boston, 
May 25, 1803. His father was ,a preacher. Even in 
childhood Emerson was fond of writing, and at the age 
of eleven wrote a version, quite a good one, of a part of 
Virgil. At the age of fourteen he entered Harvard College, 
and did remarkable work in. Greek, history, declamation, 
and composition. He was the class poet. He studied 
theology in Harvard in 1823, and became an ordained 
minister in 1829. His church was opened to all reformers, 
since Emerson himself was interested in all public ques- 
tions. He was a Unitarian early in his ministry. He 
did considerable lecturing on various subjects. From 
1842 to 1844 he was editor of The Dial. He made many 
contributions to The Atlantic Monthly, and wrote and 
lectured a great deal on the abolition of slavery. President 
Lincoln sought an introduction to Emerson after he had 
listened to one of Emerson's lectures against slavery. 
In 1866, Harvard honored him with the degree of LL.D. 
He is the author of many volumes of essays, poems, letters, 
and sketches. He died at Concord, Massachusetts, 
April 27, 1882. 

On April 19, 1836, a monument was dedicated in honor 
of the patriots who fell in the battle of Lexington, April 19, 
1775. This monument was erected at Concord ; Emerson 
wrote this hymn for the occasion. 



NOTES 4 291 



The Battle-Field (Page 212) 

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was sent to the 
district school in Cummington, Massachusetts, when he 
was four years old, and attended the school until he was 
twelve. He wrote a poem in his eleventh year, and re- 
cited it at the close of the winter school. In 1809 he 
wrote a satire attacking President Jefferson. He at- 
tended college at Williams and at Yale, but for financial 
reasons was unable to complete his course. He studied 
law, and was admitted to the bar in 1815. In 1818, he 
became regular contributor to the North American Review. 
By 1823 his poems had won him a European reputation. 
In 1836 he became editor and part owner of the New 
York Evening Post. At first he was a Democrat, but later 
became a Republican. In 1873 he was made an honorary 
member of the Russian Academy at St. Petersburg. In 
his eighty-first year he wrote "The Flood of Tears." He 
died from the results of a fall soon after he delivered the 
address at the unveiling of the statue of Mazzini in Central 
Park, New York. 

"The Battle-Field" is thought by many critics to be 
Bryant's most worthy poem. It appeared in the Demo- 
cratic Magazine for October, 1837. It is not certain what 
battlefield was in the author's mind. 



Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean (Page 214) 

There is some discussion as to the authorship of this 
song. A theatrical performer by the name of Thomas 
a Becket claimed the authorship. He declared that 
David T. Shaw requested him to write a song for Shaw 
to be sung by Shaw for his benefit night in Philadelphia. 
A Becket said he wrote it, and Shaw sang it. It seems to 
be safe to say that the name and the idea of the song 
originated with Shaw, but the words and music were 
written and composed by a Becket. It is difficult to 
find very much about either one of these men, both of 
whom were interested in the theater, and traveled as 



292 NOTES 

theatrical performers. A Becket retired from the stage 
and lived in Philadelphia in 1879, where he was a teacher 
of music. This song also goes under the title of "The 
Red, White, and Blue," and in England is popular under 
that title and "Britannia the Pride of the Ocean.' ' 

Stanzas on Freedom (Page 215) 

The West Indies lie between the southern part of 
Florida and the Gulf of Paria, Venezuela, South America. 
Among these^ islands are Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and Porto 
Rico. Jamaica became an English possession, May, 
1655, when Oliver Cromwell was head of the Protector- 
ate. Slavery could not exist in the British Isles after 1807, 
for at that time England abolished the slave trade. But 
slavery did exist in the West Indies. The West Indian 
planters stoutly resented an agitation for the abolition of 
slavery in the British colonies. But a bill was passed 
in Parliament in August, 1833, decreeing that slavery 
should cease August 1, 1834. A gift of 20,000,000 pounds 
(about $100,000,000) was made to slave owners as com- 
pensation for the loss of their property ^ 

These stanzas were sung at the anti-slavery picnic in 
Dedham on the anniversary of West Indian emancipa- 
tion, August 1, 1843. 

James Russell Lowell is considered one of our greatest 
men of letters. Among his works are the following : 
Poems (1844) ; The Vision of Sir Launfal (1845) ; Poems 
(1848) ; The Biglow Papers, First Series (1848), Second 
Series (1867); Poems (1849); Poetical Works (1869); 
Among My Books, First Series (1870), Second Series 
(1876); My Study Windows (1871); Democracy and Other 
Addresses (1887). 

The Present Crisis (Page 216) 

This poem was written in December, 1844, and pub- 
lished by Lowell in a second series of his poems in 1848. 

The political situation in 1844 was as follows : The 
presidential campaign of that year centered about the 



NOTES 293 



annexation of Texas. Mexico declared herself inde- 
pendent of Spain in 1821, and Texas was one of her "states" 
at that time. From the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
tury Americans had been going over into Texas, and by 
1830 their influence there was considered by the Mexican 
President so threatening that he forbade all further immi- 
gration from the United States into Texas. The settlers 
of Texas being mainly Americans now prepared for re- 
bellion and desired to form an independent slave state. 
The Texans petitioned for separation from Coahuila, 
a Mexican province to whom they had been subjected 
by the Mexican President. Mexico would not grant 
this request. The Texans declared their independence 
March, 1836, and wen it the following month. The Repub- 
lic of Texas was set up immediately. President Jackson 
promptly recognized its independence. The Texans hoped 
and expected annexation to the United States. 

In the campaign of 1844 the Abolitionists, those who 
wished to abolish slavery outright, appeared as the Lib- 
erty party, and were against the annexation of Texas. 
The Whig party would not commit itself on the subject 
of annexation. But the Democratic platform boldly 
declared for the annexation of Texas, and nominated 
James K. Polk for the presidency. The Democrats won 
the election. But the Congress and President Tyler did 
not wait for the new administration to take favorable 
action on the admission of Texas. A joint resolution passed 
the House by a vote of 120 to 98 and the Senate by 27 to 25. 
Thus Texas became a state in the Union, March 1, 1845. 

In studying "The Present Crisis' ' and the preceding 
selection, "Stanzas on > Freedom," the student can easily 
determine Lowell's position on the question of slavery and 
human freedom. In them are found " strains of poet 
and preacher," and they constitute an "inspiring expres- 
sion of moral passion." 



The Ship of State (Page 221) 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), a dis- 
tinguished American poet, began his school life at the 



294 NOTES 



age of three, and entered public school in Love Lane, 
Portland, Maine, in 1812. From here he was at once 
sent to a private school. He attended Bowdoin College, 
and then went to Europe to fit himself for the chair of 
modern languages at Bowdoin. He studied and traveled 
in England, France, Spain, and Germany, returning to 
America in 1829. In that year he became professor in 
Bowdoin, and prepared his own text-books in -French, 
Italian, and Spanish. In 1836 he became professor of 
French and Spanish languages at Harvard. He wrote 
dozens of articles and published many books. He visited 
Europe several times, and while there was entertained 
by men of distinction, among them Charles Dickens and 
Tennyson. He has been termed the "American poet 
laureate." England thought so much of him that a bust 
of Longfellow was placed in the Poets' Corner at West- 
minster Abbey in March, 1884. America never tires of 
his "Evangeline," "Hiawatha," and "The Village Black- 
smith." 

Battle Hymn of the Republic (Page 222) 

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) was born in New York 
City, May 27, 1819, soon after the War of 1812. Her 
father was a successful banker, and gave her an education 
very liberal for her time. She married the noted New 
York philanthropist, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe. Before 
the Civil War she conducted with her husband The Common- 
wealth, an anti-slavery paper. In 1861 she wrote the 
famous "Battle Hymn of the Republic." In 1867 she 
went to Greece, and in 1869 became devoted to the cause 
of woman suffrage. She was a delegate to the World's 
Prison Reform Congress in London in 1872. Mrs. Howe 
has written many prose and poetical works ; edited Sex 
and Education ; was associate editor of the Woman's Jour- 
nal, and contributed to many newspapers and magazines. 

In 1918 Dr. Henry van Dyke wrote a stanza in answer 
to a request of the United States Marines^ in the training 
camp at Quantico. In writing to the editor concerning 
this stanza, Dr. van Dyke said : 



NOTES 295 



Avalon, Princeton, N. J. 

June 20, 1918 
J. Madison Gathany, A.M. 

Seekonk, Mass. 
Dear Sir : 

Your favor of June 15th is duly received. In regard to 
the stanza to which you refer, it was not written as an 
addition or emendation to Mrs. Howe's "Battle Hymn 
of the Republic." It was merely an impromptu, composed 
in answer to the request of the U. S. Marines in the train- 
ing camp at Quantico, who wished for a verse to express 
the spirit with which they had volunteered for this war, 
and who wanted to sing it to the old tune of John Brown's 
Body, which Mrs. Howe adapted for her Hymn. I gave 
strict instructions that the stanza should not be regarded 
as a part of that Hymn, but should be sung only after 
the Hymn was completed, to express the thought that 
the great result of the Civil War, the establishment of 
human freedom in our country, is the very thing for which 
we are fighting now on a larger scale and on behalf of 
mankind. My stanza should not be used or printed with- 
out this explanation. 

Yours truly, 

Henry van Dyke 

The words of this stanza follow : 

We have heard the cry of anguish from the victims of the 

Hun, 
And we know our country's peril if the war lord's will is 

done — 
We will fight for world wide freedom till the victory is won, 
For God is marching on. 

Union and Liberty (Page 223) 

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) attended Phillips 
Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, and graduated 
from Harvard in 1829. He wrote frequently for college 
publications, and wrote and delivered the poem at com- 



296 NOTES 

mencement time. He later studied medicine at Harvard, 
and became professor of anatomy and physiology at 
Dartmouth College from 1838 to 1840. Then he prac- 
ticed medicine in Boston. In 1847 he was appointed 
professor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard, and 
was dean of the medical school there from 1847 to 1853. 
Dr. Holmes did much lecturing and an abundance of writing. 
He was one of the founders of the Atlantic Monthly and 
contributed to it his well-known series of papers entitled 
''The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table." He resigned 
his professorship in Harvard in 1882, and from that time 
lived a retired but active life in Boston until his death, 
October 7, 1894. 



Battle Cry of Freedom (Page 224) 

George F. Root (1820-1895), an American musician 
and song-writer of considerable note, was born in Sheffield, 
Massachusetts, August 30, 1820. He spent his youth in 
North Reading, not far from Boston, his father having 
moved there when George was only six years old. He 
was always very fond of music, and at thirteen he could 
"play a tune" upon as many instruments as he was years 
old. He said in the story of his life, "There was a chronic 
curiosity in the village choir as to what instrument the 
boy would play upon next." The dream of his life was 
to be a musician. His musical books and his sheet-music 
compositions are altogether too numerous to list. He 
brought out books almost every year, and sometimes three 
and four each year, from 1847 to 1890. One man who 
served in that war said of Dr. Root's war songs: "Only 
those who were at the front realize how often we were 
cheered, revived, and inspired by the songs of him who 
sent forth the 'Battle Cry of Freedom.' While others 
led the boys in blue to final victory, it was his songs that 
nerved the men at the front, and solaced the wives, 
mothers, sisters, and sweethearts at home." Colonel 
F. D. Grant said : "His songs were a great comfort to the 
soldiers during the war, and helped to lighten the fatigues 
of many a weary march." "The Battle Cry of Freedom," 



NOTES 297 

"Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," and "Just before the Battle, 
Mother" were among Dr. Root's most popular songs in 
the camps and on the battlefields of the Civil War. 

In the story of his own life, Dr. Root says : "I heard of 
President Lincoln's second call for troops one afternoon 
while reclining on a lounge in my brother's house. Im- 
mediately a song started in my mind, words and music 
together : 

"'Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once 
again, Shouting the battle-cry of freedom.' 

" I thought it out that afternoon, and wrote it the next 
morning at the store. The song went into the army, and 
the testimony in regard to its use in the camp and on the 
march, and even on the field of battle, from soldiers and 
officers, up to generals, and even to the good President 
himself (Abraham Lincoln), made me thankful that if I 
could not shoulder a musket in defense of my country I 
could serve her in this way." 

The Sword of Bunker Hill (Page 225) 

William Ross Wallace (1819-1881) was born in Lex- 
ington, Kentucky, in 1819. He attended Bloom in gton 
and South Hanover College, Indiana, and afterward 
studied law in Lexington, Kentucky, and began the 
practice of law in New York City in 1841. He devoted 
most of his time to literature. He contributed to the 
Union Magazine, Harper's, the New York Ledger, and 
other publications. He is the author of a number of 
poems besides the one quoted in this volume. He died 
in New York City, May 5, 1881. 



The Revolutionary Rising (Page 226) 

Thomas Buchanan Read (1822-1872) was an artist 
and poet. After his father's death he was apprenticed 
to a tailor, but so disliked this work that he secretly went 



298 NOTES 

to Philadelphia, where he worked at manufacturing cigars. 
In 1837 he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became a 
sign-painter. He did not attend school regularly. He 
was employed in a theater in Dayton, Ohio, for a year, 
and then returned to Cincinnati as a portrait painter. 
He made little money, and was forced to make a living 
by sign-painting, cigar-making, readings, and dramatic 
performances. He lived in New York in 1841, and in 
Boston, where he contributed poems to the Courier, 1843- 
1844. He traveled abroad in 1850 and in 1853, taking 
up art-study in Florence and Rome until 1858. During 
the Civil War he recited many of his National war-songs 
in the camps, and gave the proceeds of his readings to the 
aid and comfort of the wounded soldiers. He died in 
New York City, May 11, 1872. 

"The Revolutionary Rising" as given in this volume 
is taken from "The Wagoner of the Alleghanies," a poem 
of the days of 1776. The scenes of this poem are mostly 
laid on the banks of the Schuylkill, between Philadelphia 
and Valley Forge. The complete poem covers a period of 
time extending from some years before to nearly the end 
of the Revolutionary War. 

Paul Revere 's Ride (Page 229) 

Paul Revere was one of the most patriotic citizens of 
Boston in the time of the American Revolution. He 
was a goldsmith and engraver, and did a great deal to 
further the cause of American liberty. Paul Revere was 
captured by the British Regulars while performing his 
patriotic duty on this noted ride. Later he was set free. 

Boston Hymn (Page 233) 

The day that the Emancipation Proclamation went 
into effect, January 1, 1863, this hymn was read in Music 
Hall, Boston, Massachusetts. The student should re- 
member that Lincoln's proclamation did not free a single 
slave in the loyal slaveholding states of Kentucky, Missouri, 
Maryland, and Delaware. It was only a war measure, 



NOTES 299 



and the President had the right to confiscate property 
only where the states were in rebellion against the United 
States. Slavery was legally established in the Southern 
states, and the only way in which it could be abolished 
there, except in the case mentioned, was by amending 
the Federal Constitution, or by action of the states them- 
selves. 

Liberty for All (Page 237) 

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) was among the 
most noted of the abolitionists. His parents came from 
Nova Scotia to Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1805. 
William became editor of the Newburyport Free Press in 
1826, and was a firm friend of John G. Whittier. He was 
connected with several different papers before he es- 
tablished The Liberator in Boston, January 1, 1831, which 
he edited until slavery was abolished and the Civil War 
ended. The pro-slavery compromises of the Federal 
Constitution he described as "a covenant with death 
and an agreement with hell." A public subscription of 
$30,000 Was presented to him after the Civil War for his 
services. 

Abraham Lincoln (Page 237) 

At the Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865, Lowell's 
Ode was recited. This selection is a part of that Ode. 



The Blue and the Gray (Page 239) 

Francis Miles Finch (1827- ), a jurist, was born in 
Ithaca, New York, and graduated from Yale in 1849. He 
was class poet. In 1850 he began the practice of law in 
Ithaca. He served for many years as judge of the court 
of appeals of New York State, and was commonly known 
as Judge Finch. The "Blue and the Gray" gave him a 
wide reputation. 

"The Blue and the Gray" was printed in the Atlantic 
Monthly in 1867. We are told that these stanzas were 



300 NOTES 



inspired by the fact that the women of Columbus, Missis- 
sippi, placed flowers with no partiality upon the graves 
of the dead soldiers of both the Confederacy and the 
Union. 

Centennial Hymn (Page 241) 

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) was born at 
Haverhill, Massachusetts, of Quaker descent. He was 
brought up in a simple country home, and his educational 
advantages were meager. Up to 1820 he had attended 
only the district schools. We are told that his poetic 
instinct was awakened by reading the poems of Burns. 
Whittier and William Lloyd Garrison were life-long 
friends, and they had mutually active interests in the 
problems of their day. Whittier earned money to attend 
Haverhill Academy. He wrote many poems and po- 
litical contributions to magazines. He edited the Ameri- 
can Manufacturer of Boston, but left its editorship to 
manage his father's farm until his father's death in June, 
1830. After 1832, Whittier gave most of his attention 
to politics and was a strong abolitionist with Garrison. 
From 1832 to 1877 he did an enormous amount of writing 
and editing, and at the time of his death, September 7, 
1892, was one of the most widely known of American 
writers. 

This hymn was written for the International Exposition 
held in celebration of the completion of the first hundred 
years of American independence. The Exposition began 
May 10, 1876, when the "Centennial Hymn" was sung by 
a chorus of a thousand voices. 



The Flag Goes By (Page 243) 

Henry Holcomb Bennett (1863- ) is a writer and 
illustrator of note. He writes chiefly army stories. He 
is a water colorist in landscape, birds, and animals. In 
1898-1899 he wrote a series of sketches and articles on 
the National Guard. 



NOTES 301 



Robert E. Lee (Page 244) 

In 1907 the one hundredth anniversary of General Lee's 
birth was celebrated at Richmond, Virginia. Lee was born 
at Stratford on the Potomac, in Westmoreland County, 
Virginia, January 19, 1807. He was the third son of 
Colonel Henry Lee and Anne Hill Carter, his second 
wife. General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Ap- 
pomattox, April 9, 1865. On that morning he said : 
' 'There is nothing left but to go to General Grant, and I 
would rather die a thousand deaths." This shows his 
admirable soldier-spirit. "How easily I could get rid 
of this," he continued, " and be at rest. I have only to 
ride along the line and all will be over. But it is our duty 
to live. What will become of the women and children of 
the South, if we are not here to protect them?" This 
shows the other spirit that resided in this heroic and 
gallant man. When his soldiers knew that he had sur- 
rendered, they gathered around him in groups with tears 
running down their cheeks, for they themselves had 
scarcely a thought of surrender, and they loved Lee be- 
yond the power of words to express. With tears stream- 
ing down his own cheeks, in a trembling tone, all he could 
say to them was: "Men, we have fought through the 
war together. I have done the best I could for you. 
My heart is too full to say more." This poem was read 
at the celebration mentioned above, and all are glad that 
that other noble and heroic soul, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, 
expressed so well the feeling of the North toward this 
gentleman, "Virginia's son." 

The Flag of the Free (Page 244) 

The poem from which these stanzas are taken was given 
before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University, 
June 30, 1910. 

America for Me (Page 247) 

"America for Me" was published in The Outlook, 
September 25, 1909, under the title "Home Thoughts 



302 NOTES 

From Europe." No loftier sentiment for America can be 
found than that expressed here by Dr. van Dyke. 

The Challenge (Page 248) 

Dysart McMullen (1882- ) was born in Howard 
County, Maryland, November 9, 1882. Long years ago 
the name was spelled Mac Mullen, for the family are 
Scotch Highlanders, with Welsh blood in their veins. 
Dysart McMullen was educated at Rock Hill College, 
Maryland, under the Christian Brothers. From this 
college he graduated in 1901. He has written verse since 
he was a boy, though but little of it was published until 
just recently. The Scribners have published a number of 
selections from his pen since the Great War began. Dysart 
enlisted at the entrance of the United States into the war, 
and is now (1918) in France serving the Red Cross as a 
commissioned officer. 



An Ode of Dedication (Page 249) 

Hermann Hagedorn is a young American author of ex- 
cellent standing. He is of immediate German origin, but 
is to the tips of his fingers one hundred per cent American. 
In 1907 he graduated from Harvard, and was instructor in 
English there from 1909 to 1911. He is the author of several 
one-act plays, and besides being the author of many poems, 
he wrote You are The Hope of The World (1917), Where do 
you Stand ? — An Appeal to Americans of German Origin 
(1918), Barbara Picks a Husband (1918), A Boy's Life of 
Theodore Roosevelt (1918). With three other men, he or- 
ganized the Vigilantes in 1916 — an organization every 
American should know and champion. 

America entered the Great War April 6, 1917. These 
verses were written to be read before the Harvard Chap- 
ter, Phi Beta Kappa, June 18, 1917. 



NOTES 303 



"Liberty Enlightening the World " (Page 255) 

This poem is one of Henry van Dyke's best. In his 
Preface to the book from which it is reprinted {The Red 
Flower) he said: " These are verses that came to me in 
this dreadful war time amid the cares and labors of a 
heavy task." The one here given is among those in the 
book concerning which he said: "The rest of the verses 
were printed after I resigned my diplomatic post and was 
free to say what I thought and felt, without reserve." 
His work as Minister to the Netherlands after the war 
broke out is held in highest estimation by all civilized 
nations. 

America and Her Allies (Page 256) 

Washington Gladden (1836-1918) was an author and 
clergyman of wide reputation. He was born at Potts- 
grove, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1836, and graduated 
from Williams College in 1859. In 1860 he was ordained 
to the Congregational ministry. He held a number of im- 
portant pastorates, one of which was the First Con- 
gregational Church, Columbus, Ohio, where he was pastor 
from 1882-1914. He wrote thirty or more books, and 
contributed numerous articles to various periodicals on 
religious, moral, political, and social questions. He died 
at Columbus, Ohio, July 2, 1918. 



American Consecration Hymn (Page 257) 

Percy MacKaye (1875- ) is a dramatist of note. 
He was born in New York City and has traveled ex- 
tensively in Europe, residing in Rome, Brunnen (Switzer- 
land), Leipzig, and London. He taught in a private 
school in New York from 1900 to 1904, and since then has 
been engaged almost wholly in dramatic work. He has 
lectured at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and many other 
universities, on the theater. There is almost no end to 
his literary writings. 



304 NOTES 



This hymn was dedicated by the author and the com- 
poser (Francis Macmillen) to President Wilson in response 
to the great incentive of the President's own words : "The 
Right is more precious than Peace." This "American 
Consecration Hymn" has been sung with great effect at 
the training camps. 






INDEX OF AUTHORS 



A Becket, Thomas, 214. 
Abbott, Lyman, 137. 
Anonymous (Independence 

Bell), 203. 
Bennett, Henry Holcomb, 243. 
Bryant, William Cullen, 212. 
Butler, Nicholas Murray, 89, 

103, 117, 155, 181, 183, 186. 
Cleveland, Grover, 90. 
Drake, Joseph Rodman, 208. 
Eliot, Charles W., 77, 79, 140. 
Ellis, William T., 195. 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 211, 

233. 
Finch, Francis N., 239. 
Garrison, William Lloyd, 237. 
Gladden, Washington, 256. 
Hagedorn, Hermann, 249. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 9. 
Henry, Patrick, 1. 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 223. 
Hopkinson, Joseph, 205. 
Howe, Julia Ward, 222, 244. 
Hughes, Charles Evans, 91, 138. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 5, 40. 
Key, Francis Scott, 207. 
Lane, Franklin K., 165. 
Lansing, Robert, 126. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 45, 46. 



Lippmann, Walter, 104. 
Longfellow, Henry Wadswortii, 

221, 229. 
Lowell, A. Lawrence, 108. 
Lowell, James Russell, 76, 215, 

216, 237. 
Mackaye, Percy, 257. 
McMullen, Dysart, 248. 
Munroe, James, 48. 
Outlook, The, 163, 165. 
Page, William Tyler, 194. 
Read, Thomas Buchanan, 

226. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 101, 119. 
Root, Elihu, 96, 132. 
Root, George F., 224. 
Scott, Fred N., 189. 
Shaw, David T., 214. 
Smith, Samuel Francis, 210. 
Van Dyke, Henry, 80, 82, 84, 

85, 87, 88, 244, 247, 255. 
Wallace, William Ross, 225. 
"Washington, George, 21. 
Webster, Daniel, 51, 74. 
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 241. 
-Wilson, Woodrow, 105, 142, 

156, 172, 190. 
World's Work, The, 139, 153, 

170, 182. 



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